Right away I remember Wong Kar Wai films, “Chungking Express” and “In The Mood For Love”, and of course the earlier Peter Greenaways.
Scorsese uses rock music to great effect in “Mean Streets,” almost serving as a kind of Greek chorus to what’s happening on the screen. When Charlie tells Teresa that he can’t see go out on a date with her — not now and maybe not for a long time, because his uncle told him to stay away from her — the song that’s playing is Betty Evertee’s “The Shoop Shoop Song,” which asks that famous question:
Does he love me? I want to know
How can I tell, if he loves me so?
Is it in his eyes?
Oh no, you’ll be deceived
Is it in his signs?
Oh no, he’ll make believe
If you want to know if he loves you so
It’s in his kiss
It captures Teresa’s own mood perfectly, both because she’s trying to kiss Charlie, and he resists, and because she wants to trust that Charlie will someday be there for her.
This is a great topic as a well used score can completely change the tone and feel of a film. Rushmore is a favorite and the soundtrack is a large part of why I love it so much. Motherbaugh’s instrumental music has a charming feel during key sequences and transitions and the use of 60s/70s pop and rock places dramatic exclamations on other memorable moments. The song choices themselves are particularly great. Anderson has gone back to the well of secondary hits and deep tracks from the 60s and 70s with success, but never so much as in this film, in my mind.
It begins and ends with Vertigo, but you have to give some recognition to the other Anderson for that incredible moment in Magnolia when the characters sing Aimee Mann’s “Wise Up” as it plays in a very non-diagetic way on the soundtrack. A real risk that, I believe, pays off.
The Piano. Michael Nyman’s score gives way to all the emotion behind Ada’s stone face.
i agree what all has been said thus far, but three directors come to mind right away when i think about music + film. wes anderson (especially the royal tenenbaums), stanley kubrick, and david lynch. any given film of these three have a great music/scene connection that can be described as no less then beautiful filmmaking.
There are far more substantive examples – films defined by their very scores – but I like Rodney’s example of a particular song that punctuates an on-screen conversation. Again, so many beauts from which to choose, but I’ll drop one that still makes me smile (for reasons I won’t spoil for the unknowing): the use of Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” in “The Crying Game.”
Through A Glass Darkly. I thought the little teases of Bach at key points in the film were perfection!
Nice call with Magnolia! That is a pretty amazing scene.
Philip Glass’s scores: Mishima, Dracula, Kundun, Cassandra’s Dream, et al, are phenomenal.
As far as using rock music and not actual scores go Harold and Maude and The Graduate were done quite exquisitely.
Wong Kar Wai’s use of music in In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express
Neil Young’s score for Dead Man
Ennio Morricone’s score for The Thing
Akira’s soundtrack
Cliff Martinez’s score for the remake of Solaris
Recently, I found the choral music in Icelandic film Jar City (Myrin) brilliant as well.
Are we talking about scores, the use of individual songs with which characters interact, or songs played over the soundtrack? For scores, it’s The Third Man for me. For songs with which characters interact (not including musicals), the “Wise Up” sequence in Magnolia is up there, so is dancing “The Madison” in Godard’s Band of Outsiders (or the Jack Rabbit Slim’s contest in Pulp Fiction), or Bo Derek playing Bolero in “10.” The third category — songs played over a soundtrack — is, I think, the most intresting category, and is the category where Scorsese is the undisputed master. In fact, there could be a forum just on Scorsese’s use of pop songs. A few favorites: The harmonica opening of Van Morrison’s “T.B. Sheets” in sync with the lights of an ambulance in Bringing Out the Dead; “Jumpin Jack Flash” when we first meet De Niro, as Keitel looks on, in Mean Streets; Muddy Waters’ howls in “Mannish Boy” as Liotta pulls up from taking a line of cocaine on the day he is arrested in Goodfellas. For me, these songs are now absolutely inseparable from these moments.
Barry Lyndon.
The card playing scene where Barry and Lady Lyndon lock eye contact before walking out to the balcony. Perfect piece of music, Franz Schubert is excellent.
as mentioned before, PTA has a good ear for the right song, proven in boogie nights, in which he uses period music to tell the passing of time, magnolia’s great soundtrack provided by aimee mann and there will be blood’s magnificant jonny greenwood score. and lets not forget the genius use of “he needs me” from popeye the movie, recycled to great effect in PTA’s ‘punch drunk love’. extra points for keeping shelley duvall’s vocals.
whenever i think of music in films i automatically think of scorsese. the scene in goodfellas with derek and the dominoes’ “layla” represents still my favourite use of music in a film, regardless of how obvious or passe it may be a choice. its just beautiful and sums up the mood of the film at that point more than anything else could. i love the use of the ronettes’ “be my baby” over the credits of ‘mean streets’, the unique sound of phil spector’s bass and drum combo fits the nature of the opening credits perfectly.
wong kar wai always seems to make great choices too, i remember listening to the soundtrack to 2046 constantly over one christmas, but its in the mood for love and chungking express where his choices really shine. its funny that both are so diverse too.
ryuichi sakamoto’s score to babel was beautiful too, as was the fountain’s. wes anderson scores are always great, featuring many a lost classic.
I really loved the score to The Hours and Notes on a Scandal
Philip Glass is the man
I also think that there are many great rock music moments in Revisor Dogs and Pulp Fiction
And in There Will Be Blood when we see HW and the girl start to fall in love. The music there is beautiful
I definitely agree with Josh about the Magnolia “Wise Up” scene. I think P.T. Anderson does a good job of using music in most of his films, and the same goes for Woody Allen, Alfred Hitchcock (especially when he’s working with Bernard Herrmann), Cameron Crowe and Wes Anderson.
The movie Once as a whole would definitely be at the top of the list for me, though.
Stupid double post.
Like someone said before, Neil Young’s score for Dead Man, especially the beginning scene on the train.
I too love the opening shot of The Crying Game, because it’s so mysterious, isn’t it? At least it is for anyone who entered the movie cold, which is what I did. A fair ground with a Ferris wheel, a classic song by Percy Sledge, and a most curious title — what in the world do these things have to do with each other? I didn’t know, but I was totally hooked.
Dazed and Confused most of the music acuratley comments on the action through out the entire film. I love Slacker by the way. D&C was not one of my favs but Linklater used the music to inhance the action of even describe the action.
Also the music For Aki Kursumaki’s Films Like “The Match Factory girl” witch used very little dialouge. The poppy upbeat music says more of the the charchters than they say to each other. One hell of a dramatic device is music.
Dogfight (1991) had great, unpretentious early ’60s music.
Radio Days (1987) uses music a little more nostalgically, but still well done.
The last scene of Seven Samurai, with the villagers singing as they discuss the outcome of the battle. sigh also, the fire festival song from Hidden Fortress.
One of my favorite scores that incorporates original material with classical music is “The New World.” The score really adds a lot to the finished product, especially since Malick relies a lot on these long sweeping scenes with little or no dialogue. Beautiful.
As far as “music compilations” are concerned, my recent favorites include “Garden State” (even though the movie isn’t as strong as the soundtrack) and “Marie Antoinette.”
David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” and “Queen Bitch” and Devo’s “Gut Feeling” in The Life Aquatic are perfect at evoking the right feelings for the scenes they’re used in. Really, I dig Mark Mothersbaugh’s entire score for that movie.
And perhaps this is too lowbrow for a Criterion forum, but the use of “Freebird” at the end of The Devil’s Rejects is EPIC.
What about the lack of music? Or even sound for that matter. I just watched Fritz Lang’s M last night and had watched 8 1/2 for the previous three nights. There are some great long stretches in each film with absolutely no sound which really compliments the mis en scene and gives the whole thing an almost surreal feeling. With sound, less (and sometimes none) is more quite often I think.
There are too many scores that are amazing, so I’ll remark only on pop music in films:
LIFE LESSONS is Scorsese’s third of the the film New York Stories (which is pretty much the only portion of the film I enjoy that much. Coppola’s portion was quite weak and Allen’s was fun but not amazing). In Life Lessons, Nick Nolte’s character keeps replaying “Whiter Shade of Pale.” It was quite moving and I always think of that film now when I hear that song, even though I’d loved it for years before seeing the film.
All the different times “Blue Velvet” played in the film BLUE VELVET was breathtaking.
LOST IN TRANSLATION and MARIE ANTOINETTE both fit their soundtracks great. I know Antoinette caught hell for using pop music for a period piece, but it didn’t distract me from the film and I’m one of the few people I know that really enjoyed it.
Wes Anderson is a master at pop songs in movies. What I loved about his films is lots of times he uses songs that come from the same LP. Tarantino and PT Anderson are also very good.
I’m a big fan of the use of pop songs in Moulin Rouge and Across The Universe. Bono doing I’m The Walrus did it for me.
Trainspotting has a great use of music. And recently Guy Ritchies use of music in RocknRolla works very well. Always loved Morricone’s score for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and The Mission.
Eduardo Young
What are your favorite scenes or sequences in which music works perfectly at enhancing the quality of the film?
I really liked the final sequence in Fitzcarraldo. I think that “a te o cara” works incredibly well in that particular sequence. It gives some kind of trascendental feel to the whole film. I also enjoyed very much the fog scene in Armacord.
sorry for my mediocre english.