There she is.
Natalie Portman in her spunky red hair, walking aimlessly, as if she is heading towards us the audience, while actually Jude Law is the man she puts her sights on. As the playful editing shifts between the two faces exchanging smiles, Damien Rice has started crooning his acoustic song riveting about “The Blower’s Daughter” with lyrics that is so aptly tuned to the scene.
“I can't take my eyes off of you/I can't take my eyes off you…”
For those who have seen Closer, you may find that the melodious composition of what can be a rip-off from tracks found in some aspiring indie band, actually plays a pivotal role in enhancing the mood of that particular opening scene, transporting audience to an atmosphere of longing and yearning of some undefined feeling.
It is a piece of cake to indicate how one song can successfully be associated with certain scenes from a film. Whenever I come to CD shops and listening to that Damien Rice’s song being played along, I’d surely stop and start acting like Jude Law, pretending to adjust my glasses, gazing at some scattered direction, only to find that no one is willing to sacrifice their dignity to be my Natalie Portman of the moment. How sad.
Or remember the cheerful, full of warmth dinner scene in the middle of My Best Friend’s Wedding, where Cameron Diaz’s big family members joyfully sing along Dionne Warwick’s “I Say A Little Prayer for You”?
And not to mention how Rupert Everett hijacks the whole film with his quirky act, mind-boggling story on his ‘fake’ encounter with Warwick that started him to devilishly sing “the moment I wake up/before I put on my makeup …”
The rest goes down to history as one of the great musical scenes ever found in non-musical films.
Just as we begin to think that soundtrack has been reduced its functionality to become a mere marketing or promotional tool of a film by throwing in any tracks that God only knows whether they suit the film or not (M2M’s “Don’t Say You Love Me” for Pokemon: The First Movie, anyone?), we are glad to reel on those few precious, magical moments where songs and scenes incorporate and integrate nicely to make into works worth remembering. However, integration does not always come smoothly as proven in the massacre of Cole Porter’s works in De-Lovely, in which Irwin Winkler tried to apply the formula on constructing Porter’s biographical story based on his songs that simply fail to engage audience in singing, no matter how familiar they/we are with those standards.
At this point of time, I can’t think of any recent director so tuneful in this trend rather than the genius himself, Mr. Quentin Tarantino, with particular reference to his Kill Bill Vol. 1. Remember the moment when Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver made her grand entrance as a one-eyed nurse, and the camera shoots her figure from below and as the music is progressing, so is the shot of hers slowly building up, and ends with a bang!
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- Nauval Yazid
- Jakarta, Indonesia
- A film festival manager. A writer. An avid moviegoer. An editor. An aspiring culinary fan. A man.
8 comments:
bruce springsteen's "secret garden" and the movie "jerry maguire" were made for each other.
celine dion's "my heart will go on" and the movie "titanic" were made to sink each other down.
"you've got mail" has luckily got carole king's "anyone at all" as its spinal cord.
meanwhile ... can indonesian movies stop using melly goeslaw's music? oh ... they even make another one based on her short story!
-ve-
Saya kagum sama penata musik yg bisa nemu lagu2 yang cocok, membuat film jadi lebih berkesan. Mereka seperti punya indera ketujuh :)
doel
kalo kamu punya mp3nya si damien rice ituh, kirimin ke gmailkuh dunk beib. buat persediaan di kantor. hohohohoho.
lope
-iu-
Ve,
while actually my posting here refers to the use of songs which are embedded in such to integrate with certain scenes from films so to enhance intended effects of the scenes, I can't help commenting on your choices as well:
1. a good romantic song that needs not going weepy, yet both scene and song can stand alone on its own. I remember that the song was played when Renee sat and talked to Tom in their small garden, and came up with the decision to stay apart, temporarily, from each other. the scene actually falls into hollywood cliche of adding "unnecessary" track to what's supposedly best left without any scores to create an intense feeling.
2. actually the horribly overrated sung was never sung throughout the film, we only hear this after the film ends, during the lengthy credits. and this is one of the rare moments i can yell: thank God! :D
3. same case, yet the connection is not clearly strong as the song is often heard or seen without any glimpse of hints that this song actually belongs to the film. not intending to add the salt to the wound though, this is not carole king's best either.
I rest my case about your query on indonesian movies since you know it ten thousand times better than I do, dear :)
certainly Melly's works belong to mere "soundtrack", although she sparked a little of hope to make that rapport when she created the titular work of "Ada Apa Dengan Cinta".
Doel,
beruntunglah orang-orang seperti John Williams, Ennio Morricone itu yang walaupun ngga punya indera ketujuh, tapi punya sensitivitas yang kuat banget to make themselves related to the films they are "asked" to provide the music to.
IU,
ho oh! besok ye! tapi ngga enak kalo kamu denger duluan sebelum nonton pelemnya
Kira kira pal, kalo ada filem tentang autobiography loe, loe siapa yang pertama bakal loe minta jadi pengisi soundtrack loe? Anggep aja loe mau mengisi filem loe itu dengan satu orang pengisi soundtrack macem AADC - Melly Goeslaw thing.
Catlio!
Buat ngejawab pertanyaan elo ini, gue kudu duduk diem depan monitor selama 30 menit buat mikir satu per satu film berikut soundtracknya!
*terpekur*
ok, dengan asumsi bahwa musisi nya adalah musisi yang ngga punya spesialisasi bikin musik buat pelem (bukan composer buat film scores), gue bakal milih
AIMEE MANN
yang bikin soundtrack pelem "Magnolia", karena dia bisa ngambil soul and mood film itu, dan ditengah keabsurdan jalan cerita film, dengerin musik atau lagu yang dinyanyiin Aimee Mann (note that not all songs are written by her, some are in fact cover version) bisa ngasih soothing effect yang ngga bikin kita jadi males ato feeling melancholy, tapi ngerasain satu perasaan yang penuh, apa adanya, ngga dibuat-buat.
gue banget gitu loh, Bim! :)
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