The bell just rang, school is out for summer. Maybe it’s out forever—leaving school behind as our heroes and antiheroes spend long, hot days laying about in the city or countryside, anticipating college dreams or fearing a return to the classroom. Or, more likely, not thinking of studies at all, just anticipating the next summer day and how to score more thrills.
As the season winds down, here is a mix that is an ode to the teenage summer—so wonderfully captured in many films—a choice selection that evokes endless possibilities: sweat, love, passion, booze, drugs, and questions of the great unknown just around the corner. The characters of these summertime stories are either breaking hearts, heartbroken, running from hell or somewhere lost in between.
Some favorite moments include the confusion, chaos and otherworldly essence of Gheorghe Zamfir’s flute from the unforgettable score for Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), St. Etienne’s “We’re In the City” playing in a bar in which Clea DuVall, Natasha Lyonne, and Julie Delpy steal the screen in one the nineties last great moments of cinema, But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), and the melancholy summertime sadness of Valerie Carter’s “Ooh Child” Jonathan Kaplan’s Over The Edge (1979).
All the popular music, snippets and scores included symbolize those lost and searching sun-kissed months.
Tracklist:
- Excerpt, Slacker (Richard Linklater, 1990) 00:00
- Souls of Mischief, "'93 til Infinity," Mid90s (Jonah Hill, 2018) 5:00
- Massive International Complications, "Strawberry Wine," The Basketball Diaries (Scott Kalvert, 1995) 9:30
- Bobby Krilic, "Murder (Mystery)," Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019) 13:20
- Charles Bernstein, "Prologue," Nightmare on Elm Street, (Wes Craven, 1984) 19:20
- Air, "Bathroom Girl," The Virgin Sucides (Sofia Coppola, 1999) 19:50
- The Folk Implosion, "Nothing Gonna Stop," Kids (Larry Clark, 1995) 22:00
- Simon & Garfunkel, "Bookends," (500) Days of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009) 26:00
- Gheorghe Zamfir, "Ascent Music (Reprise)," Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975) 29:25
- Thomas Newman, "Strip Croquet," Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1984) 30:40
- Excerpt, I Know What You Did Last Summer (Jim Gillespie, 1997) 32:32
- Excerpt, My Summer of Love (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2004) 33:28
- Aimee Mann, "You Could Make a Killing," Cruel Intentions (Roger Kumble, 1999) 35:12
- Trent Reznor, "Further Along, " Mid90s (Jonah Hill, 2018) 38:40
- 10CC, "I’m Not In Love," The Virgin Sucides (Sofia Coppola, 1999) 41:30
- Excerpt, Blue Crush (John Stockwell, 2002) 47:28
- Alexandre Desplat, "The Heroic Weather-Conditions of the Universe, Part 1: A Veiled Mist," Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012) 48:16
- Excerpt, But I’m a Cheerleader (Jamie Babbit, 1999) 52:10
- Thomas Newman, "Forest," Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1984) 55:55
- Valerie Carter, "Ooh Child," Over the Edge (Jonathan Kaplan, 1979) 57:48