As an aficionado of both music and film, and who among us doesn’t claim to be one with all of the media at our disposal these days, I have been thinking about the intersection of sound and film and how they’ve come to shape my listening experiences over the years. Perhaps it was growing up in the 80’s and remembering MTV as a place to see music videos rather than a sinkhole of reality TV (David Byrne in the over-sized suit was particularly memorable). Perhaps it was seeing the work of directors influenced by convergence of film and music that came from this medium. Perhaps it goes all the way back to The Wizard of Oz, which was the first film to use a soundtrack that contained songs written especially for it and the big screen.
However, listening to songs, be it on the big screen or small, as the action of a movie flashed by led to discovery. Often, a good film that makes effective use of song can enhance the viewing experience. It can meld the warm feeling of an enjoyable cinematic moment with the primal immediacy of a well-crafted song or a tune with a catchy beat. Maybe, this is one of the pleasures of filmmaking. To be able, as a director, to connect with viewers by using music to cue up the emotions that go along with a song. Music is push that runs as a parallel tone to a scene. As music listeners, we tend to accumulate emotional baggage to go along with songs we enjoy. I think filmmakers are certainly aware of this and some especially do a nice job wielding the soundtrack to pull the viewer into the simulacrum of his artistic vision. Here’s a list of favorite soundtrack songs, in no particular order.
*Louis Malle’s first film, Elevator To the Gallows, is a noir-ish thriller from 1958. While the acting and cinematography are wonderful, Malle certainly pulled a coup on this one, getting THE Miles Davis (pre-Kind of Blue) to create a soundtrack that fits perfectly the director’s use of light and shadow in this black and white film that flew under my radar for far too long. Miles is backed up here by a talented quintet of French musicians, as well as be-bop pioneer and Pittsburgh native Kenny Clarke on drums.
*Broken Flowers, a strange and wonderful little film by Jim Jarmusch, stars Bill Murray as a long time bachelor who receives an anonymous letter informing him that he has a grown child. It turns into a bit of a detective film as well as a meditation on life as Murray’s character tracks down his past loves to get to the bottom of his paternity mystery. As good as that is, the music by Mulatu Astatke, the Ethiopian Miles Davis, as he’s been called, is truly a revelation here. The entire soundtrack is killer though, including songs by Dengue Fever and The Greenhornes, that round out what was once an obscure set list but now is in regular rotation on my CD player.
*Drugstore Cowboy, is considered by many to be Gus Van Sant’s first successful film. As a high school senior, it was my introduction to the world of independent filmmaking. Re-watching the film recently, I was struck by the sheer exuberance I found in Desmond Dekker’s masterpiece “The Israelites,” which helped Van Sant capture the emotion and energy of junkies on a road trip. While the rest of the soundtrack is less interesting, the cameo by William S. Burroughs is still pretty cool as well.
*The 1991 cult film, Naked Lunch, is David Cronenberg’s cinematic Valentine to the strange life and writings of William S. Burroughs. The strong acting by Peter Weller and Judy Davis add to the weirdness Cronenberg weaves into this amalgam of Burroughs’ biography and other writings to explore the surrealistic underbelly of heroin addiction. Ornette Coleman’s score for this film captured the mood perfectly and became part of my introduction to “free jazz.”
*This is England, was a small British film that caught little attention except from critics when it was released here in 2007. The story, set in England against the backdrop of that country’s involvement in the Falkland Islands war, explores a young boy’s anger at the loss of his father in that war. He befriends a group of skinheads which would seem to spell a rather bleak cinematic experience, but director Shane Meadows finds balance in the mood with a soundtrack that relies heavily on roots and reggae. I was overjoyed with the Toots & The Maytals tunes which captured the rhythms and complexities of the times.
*Fight Club is director David Fincher’s 1999 adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel that brilliantly ruminates on the nature of man living in the heavily consumerist society of today. The infamous Dust Brothers (thank you for Paul’s Boutique) create some thumping, scratchy moments of electro that capture the mood of the novel nicely. However, I can think of few more-perfect movie endings than Fincher’s use of The Pixies, “Where Is My Mind?” to punctuate his vision of the end of the world as we know it.
*Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for A Dream (2000), is his powerful adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr.’s novel that explores the lives of four Brooklynites dealing with the ravages of addiction. While Aronofsky’s film is both stunning and dark, the soundtrack is populated by Clint Mansell and the Kronos Quartet, whose dreamy and modern symphonic styles seem to have been remixed by many in the electronic music game for a signature soundtrack that haunts the viewer well after the film is over.
*While director Danny Boyle came to prominence in 1996 with the slick and often funny film, Trainspotting, last year’s Slumdog Millionaire is the one that gained him the honors. But returning to Trainspotting, however, Boyle seemed to take the idea of the soundtrack to another level in managing to balance songs by Iggy Pop and Lou Reed with some wonderful moments of techno. However, M.I.A’s “Paper Planes” is the killer and seems to embrace a global mash-up if I ever heard one. The Clash sample on this song along with Diplo’s production and M.I.A’s exotic sensibilities really send “Paper Planes” over the top.
*Quentin Tarantino seems to have set the bar extremely high when it comes to using music (often slightly obscure) to great effect in his films. From Dusty Springfield and Al Hirt to the RZA and David Bowie, Tarantino knows how to make a stylish and sometimes ironic point with his choice of music for his films. Seeing Reservoir Dogs in a small theatre when it was first released made quite an impression on me. And while the film is known best musically for its use of Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck In The Middle With You” during the infamous torture scene, I knew there was something special in store from the opening credits. Tarantino’s slick usage of the George Baker Selection’s “Little Green Bag” to introduce his band of gangsters with color-themed aliases was just too cool.
*Lastly, my list would be incomplete without mentioning Stanley Kubrick’s now iconic usage of Richard Strauss’ “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.” in his 1968 masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick’s choice of music seems to embody much of what he was trying to capture in this far-reaching film. The classical music sets a mood that allows Kubrick to beautifully explore the eternal and sometimes mysterious themes of man’s past, present and future in typically grandiose fashion.
Fred Shaw recently reviewed Patti Smith’s Just Kids for shaking: http://shakinglikeamountain.com/shaking/2010/03/01/just-kids-book-review/
fred is lord!
Another fine piece of ‘memory-inducing’ writing by Fred. It seems like we’ve both grown up with the same(ish) soundtracks to our lives.
Keep them coming Fred…