Yesterday's Day After Tomorrow, Doris

I have fond childhood memories of Doris Day singing Que Sera Sera, this mainly from The Doris Day Show which ran on television from 1968-1973.  Although it fell on the wrong side of the generation gap for baby boomers like myself, the song captured a child's point of view and a sense of "go with the flow" that was not entirely at odds with the youth culture of that time.

Actually, the song itself goes back to 1956, having been written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, and originally appearing in Alfred Hitchcock's classic film The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which Doris Day starred opposite James Stewart.  Here are the lyrics:

When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother, what will I be
Will I be pretty, will I be rich
Here's what she said to me.


Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.


When I was young, I fell in love
I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead
Will we have rainbows, day after day
Here's what my sweetheart said.


Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.


Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother, what will I be
Will I be handsome, will I be rich
I tell them tenderly.


Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

Admittedly, a bit corny, yes, but very sweet nonetheless.  But that's besides the point.  The point being that there's nothing corny or sweet about this mash-up that samples Doris Day's signature song, and is itself entitled Que Sera.  The artist is listed as Wax Tailor, which good old Wikipedia identifies as the alias of "French trip hop/hip hop producer, Jean-Christophe Le Saoût."

The music is okay if you like that sort of thing, certainly interesting and skillful, but what really caught my eye, when one of my MySpace friends shared this video with me, is it's use of edited footage from the restored version of the great silent science fiction film, Metropolis.  I think the production values here are excellent, and well worth a view:

What is truly magnificent about this video is the irony it achieves by juxtaposing Fritz Lang's visions of futures passed, a vision of the future that says more about 1927 Germany that it does about any future period that was or yet may be, with the lines from the song that say, whatever will be will be, and especially, the future's not ours to see. 

The history of the future is not about the future, it is about the present day that was imagining a future to come, and that imagination tells us about what people at that time were hoping for, and what they feared might come to pass, what they valued and what they despised.  Images of the future are not prophecies, they are distorted reflections of the present, that is, of the time in which they originated.

Man, all this time talk gets me all tensed up and out of sync!  So, anyway, it's a cool video, don't you think?  And as an added bonus, here's a little source material for you:

Que sera, sera, the most important thing to know about the future is that we cannot know it, that it is unpredictable and uncontrollable, and it's hubris to think otherwise.  As corny as that song may be, it taught me an important lesson about what it means to be a human being, fallible and limited.  And that is what I call a Day's work!