#movie music

I am married to a musician and I hear lots and lots of music, new and old. There are fifty hours of Later with Jools Holland on my DVR right now.

But I am still not familiar with your favorite band, so when I read song titles in your description lines, I don’t know what you’re talking about. And even if I did, it doesn’t convey any information to me. The odds on me being exactly on your wavelength about that music, supposing I do know it, are worse than a superfecta.

Unless you are making your own film, everything about movie music is someone else’s job.

Example:

I was at a screening of Flight, and there was a Q & A with Robert Zemeckis, and a woman said, “I was wondering about your choice to not have a musical score. How did you make that choice?” and he said, “Well, there was a score, and we labored over it, but the fact that you didn’t notice it means we did it really well.”

I’m assuming she wasn’t talking about “Sympathy for the Devil”, but I am damn sure John Gatins didn’t put that in the script.*

Anyway. Music just doesn’t translate very well to the page.  If you have to describe it, do it in a conceptual way so it will mean roughly the same thing to both of us.

Exception:

The only time I’ve ever seen a specific song title achieve something positive was in a comedy, and it worked like a punchline.

*on an unrelated note:  John Gatins was there, too. The script for Flight had been around for…I can’t remember, seven years? And one day the phone rings out of the blue, and it’s “Denzel is interested in making your movie.” So, there’s that.

A pop duo from Italy, Oliver Onions did some of the most startling, pleasantly cheesy, and enjoyable movie themes of all time for Italian cinema of the 1980s. If big, corny, belted out music is your bag, give them a listen. Despite their pop origins, however, they keep the spirit of the 70s alive into the 80s, in that they seemed like some mashup of up tempo disco dance grooves and Alan Parsons style synth prog. 

If 1980s movies that end in a rap song over the credits that summarize the plot of the movie you just saw, are just plain too cornball for you to handle (”his name is Vigo/Master of Evil/Tried to step up to my boys/that’s not legal”), Oliver Onions may be just plain too much for you. On the other hand, if you love those, they’re perfect.

The theme that brought them to my attention was the one for Yor, the Hunter from the Future (aka “Yor’s World, He’s the Man”): 

Their “Black Inferno” theme for Atlantis Interceptors (a film by the director of Cannibal Holocaust) reminds me of what would happen if the Alan Parsons Project did something in a more dance oriented mold: 

For a change of pace, their Western theme for “Doc West” was uncharacteristically subdued, though they can’t keep it up and they do belt out the name of the main character: 

Their “Lady of Germany (Bella Bella Tu)” theme for Lady of the Night has a ton of streetwise sensuality: 

yelenas-lova:

just to be clear, the fact that music was nominated for a golden globe is absolutely disgusting. every single (adult) involved in that gross, ableist movie should be sickened by themselves.

for those of you who don’t know, music (2021) is a movie being directed by sia about a nonverable autistic girl. not only does it not include any actually autistic people in the movie itself but it also only took advice from autism speaks which is looked at as a hate group by the majority of the autistic community. leaked scenes have also shown the movie glorifying prone restraints which are incredibly dangerous and have resulted in major injuries and even death to disabled people as recently as last year.

autistic people just like me have been incredibly outspoken about how harmful this movie is but the allistic have been mostly silent. we are already seeing reviews calling this movie ‘inspiring’ and important’ and it’s absolutely horrific! we need your help calling this out. please stand with us and call out this disgusting display of disrespect to autistic folks.

- your local actually autistic pal

p.s. please, please reblog if you aren’t autistic.

Vangelis’ soundtrack for Oliver Stone’s movie “Alexander”.

Just learned the death of Greek (film) composer Vangelis.

You already know that he scored “Chariots of Fire” (Hugh Hudson) and “Blade Runner” (Ridley Scott).

My tip: listen to “Alexander” (Oliver Stone)!

John Williams’ soundtrack for Alan Pakula’s movie “Presumed Innocent”.

Howard Shore’s soundtrack for “The Lord of the Rings”.

Howard Shore’s soundtrack for “The Silence of the Lambs” (Jonathan Demme).

Film composer Howard Shore.

Howard Shore’s soundtrack for “Cop Land”, a movie about police corruption.

He could have used this music for “The Silence of the Lambs”.

If that doesn’t tell you something is rotten in Denmark, nothing will.

Vangelis’ soundtrack for “Blade Runner”.

Across The Stars

Erhu Cover by Eliott Tordo