How many times have you left a cinema with a song or piece of music indelibly ingrained in your memory?
That certainly was the case when I saw John Carpenter’s Assault on Precint 13. That menacing, synthy theme tune he wrote is a killer. And I think it is also true for many people who see Miyazaki’s 1988 anime masterpiece My Neighbour Totoro. We had a school cinema screening yesterday morning at Bio Reflexen. 180 lively, bubbly six and seven year olds. And more than a few of them came out singing the insanely catchy theme tune.
Re-watching the movie yesterday made me realise how much the music contributed. I had to google to find out that the composer was Joe Hisaishi, who has had a long career writing music for Studio Ghibli. Now I want to know more about him.
Grease? The Sound of Music? Battleship Potemkin? Hair? The Producers? Amadeus? Cabaret?
Which film soundtracks left made the greatest impression?
John Carpenter’s theme – remarkable.
Superior to the Fistful soundtrack in my opinion. And what other film sums up the history of an entire genre of film.
To be honest, I’d say Clint’s ‘Unforgiven’ is the answer to that question. At least as far as the Western genre goes. There are a few films that look back on the wild west (and so the genre itself) from the aging cowboy’s perspective (True Grit, Open Range) but Unforgiven is the best. Plus it’s Clint.
You see I see OUATITW as the end of the classic Western, reaching back with Henry Fonda to the fifties, but now he’s the bad guy. And of course the central theme is that gunmen are out of date, now that the railroad and modern capitalism are coming. Leone also referenced a whole host of classic Western scenes in the film.
Unforgiven I see more as a genre reboot: now with added amorality, graphic violence and mud.
Talking of Westerns (a brilliant genre, especially Clint and John Wayne) have there been any really good ones recently? The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford was the last one I’d give five stars to, and that was 12 years ago.
Bone Tomahawk. It’s not for the fainthearted, mind you.
Oh I say.
Sorry, Kid.
I am squeamish and the splatter Western is not a genre I am in a hurry
to embrace
but I am glad that the genre is not being
allwed to stagnate.
Looking back, I realise what a game changer the spaghetti western was in so many ways.
like the poetry!
When we left the cinema after a late screening of BT, the usher smiled and said “sleep well”. Reader, I didn’t.
Taxi Driver. Haunting music, perfect mood for the film. If I think of those scenes of steam rising up from dark, wet streets where neon lights are reflected I hear those sounds the great Bernard Hermann came up with. Foreboding yet beautiful.
Yes, as far as I recall, Bernard Herrmann finished working on the Taxi Driver soundtrack (conducting the final recording) on the day he died. What a way to sign off!
It’s reminiscent of nothing more than his work on Citizen Kane.
By coincidence, Reflen also screened this fine movie yesterday evening
A trio o musicians act as a Grek chorus appearing troughout the story to add music.
http://www.nordicfilmmusicdays.com/daviacuteeth-thornoacuter-joacutensson-is.html
It works brilliantly
A bit about the composer’s background.
https://2018.sydneyfestival.org.au/david-thor
It certainly works for me – I really want to see this film.
You will not be disappointed, Lando. His previous film, Of Horses and Men, is also quirkily excellent but somewhat darker.
It is NOT a romantic comedy as the title to this trailer suggests.
Woman at War is rentable on iTunes, Amazon and various other places. Definite must-watch.
Whilst we are mentioning Bernard Herrman, what about Psycho?
Alien is definitely uplifted by the soundtrack eeriness.
Midnight Express owes a lot likewise to its soundtrack.
Here’s the long version of the most memorable:
Never has Giorgio Moroder’s one trick pony been bettered.
Two spring to mind – The Warriors” with its soul classics, synth dystopia and Joe Walsh, and Ry Cooper’s “Southern Comfort” – slide guitar and marimba! Who knew!
@Twang agree with you re The Warriora – what an exciting opening sequence.
Also love the soundtrack to Juno which made the film.
The most recent “A Star Is Born”. I left with “Shallows” as a total ear worm. Seeked it out on Spotify immediately and love it still…
Wonderland was a fine movie by Michael Winterbottom elevated to greater heights by some wonderful Nyman:
I’m about ten and Manhattan is on telly for probably the first time. It’s in black and white and there’s some whiny American bloke talking and then….. WHAT IS THAT MUSIC??
It’s not on YT but you know what the hell I mean.
If you want the audience to remember a song, the best trick is to make it the name of the movie.
Flo and Mathew really made me realise what a fine song that is.
Sometimes the song outlives the movie.
You’re damning the Bowie song with the very, very faintest of praise.
Not my intention. I think it is a cracking song.
I have not read the book but I hear it is rather marvellous. Something of a shame that the movie did not work out
If HBO can have another bash at Northern Lights and get it right, then maybe Colin MacInnes’s novel should also be revisited.
Oor David’s song is a gem and needs no reworking.
I command you to read it henceforth and forthwith. Along with Brideshead Revisited it’s my favourite novel.
@Duco01 is a big fan too.
I have quite a fascination for 1950s Britain: the Windrush arrivals, Festival of Britain etc.
Have you read Andrea Levy’s ‘Small Island’? A very nice novel set in that period.
I haven’t read “Small Island”, but I intend to.
I can also recommend Sam Selvon’s novel “The Lonely Londoners”, which is about 1950s Trinidadian immigrants in London. Good book.
If you want the audience to remember the movie, you can always name it after a famous song.
I really enjoyed Paper Moon starring Ryan and Tatum O’Neil back in 1973.
Some of my favourite memorable musical moments in movies:
Audrey Hepburn singing Moon River in the window.
Paul Newman cycling around to entertain Katherine Ross to Raindrops keep Falling On My head.
Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon getting jiggy to Delibes’ Lakmé. Bauhaus and Bowie and Bela at the beginning of same.
The Duelling Banjos scene.
Ah yes, i LOVE ‘The Hunger’ and the Bauhaus ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ opening is one of the best opening scenes of all time.
I don’t think I’ve ever come across anyone who loves that film like I do before. I totally agree, one of the best opening scenes of all time. The whole film is beautiful to look at throughout. And still the best versions of Delibes’ Flower Duet and of Shubert’s Piano Trio No. 2 that I’ve come across.
Here’s a nice article:
https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-true-story-behind-david-bowies-gothic-horror-movie-the-hunger
How wonderful that you two Hungerheads discovered each other! I do love it when I discover another AWer who shares my enthusiasm for a movie, song, book or whatever.
For those of us who haven’t seen it….
You are a man of infinitely good taste, Gary.
Audrey singing Moon River is pure movie magic. I just have to watch it now!
Apparently the suits wanted to drop the song from the movie. Aud said over my dead body, so it stayed.
This movie was played with real ammunitions and the music was equally moving.
That is a stupendous piece of music about a chapter of history of which I knew nothing,
A very traumatic moment in French history, by the sound of things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dien_Bien_Phu
Delerue also wrote the Jules et Jim soundtrack.
Staying in France, two very memorable and totally different musicals.
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg. Very intense. Amour with a capital A.
Les Mademoiselles de Roquefort is the complete opposite. Frothy, bouncy, flirtatious and absolutely ridiculous.
Re-watched Les Parapluies last week – it’s fine wine. And the last scene of the Petrol Station in the snow is the most beautiful shot ever.
I was lucky enough to see Les Paras for the first time last year, on a big cinema screen, @timtunes. Fine wine indeed! I was rather woozy by the end.
While we are in France, we had better have this classic scene from Godard’s Bande A Parte.
I have Les Desmoiselles..lined up to watch
I enjoyed it a lot but it is so different. The mirror opposite of the Umbrellas.
Frothy, joyous, preposterous, light-hearted, colourful and camp as a row of tents at times.
When Studio Ghibli celebrated 25 years, they put on a concert at Budokan and no expense was spared.
Joe Hisaishi is a legend in my house. My son is playing the “Spirited Away” theme for his piano graduation concert in a few weeks, and therefore plays it several times most days – but I still think its lovely
That is remarkable @chillyrayvirus!
I have been a Ghibli fan for several years but had never thought about who had composed the music. Despite the fact that the Totoro theme song is insanely catchy.
Jos has a way with a tune!
The Ghibli stuff always fits perfectly.
But I present this. I don’t think music and visuals ever were so entwined in the mind as with this movie (and this isn’t even the piece of music most people first think of when they do, but it’s great, and I like it)
That is marvellous, It sounds surprisingly jazzy.
I wanted to know more and this (a times somewhat over-written) article fills in quite a few gaps.
Vangelis is a fascinating chap. According to Wiki, nobody knows where he lives or exactly who he has been married to!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vangelis
L’Enfant, from The Year of Living Dangerously.
The original ’74 version of Murder on the Orient Express is enjoyable enough, but otherwise a pretty unremarkable film especially considering its mega-stellar cast.
But the score by Richard Rodney Bennett is evocative and memorable. The music to the scene where the train pulls out of the station at the start of its journey has always stuck in my head.
Nice to see a Japanese thread on the Afterword – My Neighbor Totoro unless I’m getting rusty and in no way did I google that to find out, oh no, not me.
Tonari no Totoro literally means “next to Totoro”. Interesting (ish) fact, the title is written in two different alphabets – the “tonari no” part (the first four characters) are hiragana, and the “totoro” part is in katakana, which is usually used for transliteration of foreign words. It’s a nice touch that emphasises the non-humanness of the Totoros.
Brilliant! I take my woolly hat off to you, Kid.
That is my Comment of the Week!
“Comment of the week”? Hmpf, damn him with faint praise, why don’t you? I liked it so much I’m going to have it as a tattoo.
Hmmmph, a real fan would have changed their name by deed poll to include that post.
I knew that
Your Japanese reading skills are up to scratch. The OP is indeed the name of Miyazaki’s wonderful film.
No one else has batted an eyelid. Here on the AW we are such a flock of polyglots that we take a Japanese headline in our stride.
And now some Portuguese. From Brazil, here is Hoje sung by Taigura, the song which opens Kleber Medonca Filho’s magnificent Aquarius. Well worth looking out for.
In which case we have to have
Another great musical moment
There’s also this.
I wanted my wife to come down the stairs at our wedding to a classical piece of music and as she reached the bottom it would change to this. She didn’t go for it alas.
Talking of classic movie musical moments, Fred Astaire serenading Ginger Rogers in Swing Time from 1936, is up there with the best of them.
Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields wrote this lovely song .
And Fred delivered it with gusto.
The next clip, Gary, features an amazing song by a fantastic artist…
How many audiences left the cinema singing this?
That transcredent Frec clip gives me the excuse to post this, and it’s not even Christmas
I can’t believe I have never heard this gorgeous song. Bing could really deliver a song and Rosemary Clooney matches him well.
I’m off to bed soon and Shaun and his farmyard pals can have the night off!
This should keep you entertained for a few minutes> a list of all the awards for songs used in movies..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Film_awards_for_Best_Song
Looking at the Oscars list I see quite a few songs that have become standards but even more that I have never heard of.
Jorge Drexler won in 2004 with this lovely song
Nice, never heard it before
Not the prettiest refrain, but couldn’t get this out of my head
I have a couple of compilations of Francois de Roubaix’s work – this is a stand out (err…haven’t seen the film though)
The movie looks well worth a watch;
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064225/?ref_=ttrel_rel_tt
And, as you say, the theme song is a cracker!
Max Steiner
Thanks for some cracking suggestions there, Tim. I did not know of Steiner or de Roubaix. Max did the OST for Casablanca and Gone with the Wind. Dunce’s hat for me!
Slightly off piste, I was Googling around to see if there was any European award for best soundtrack and discovered this list of best jazz soundtracks by an Iranian film critic and jazz fan, Ehsan Khoshbakt. Well worth a look.
https://ehsankhoshbakht.blogspot.com/2011/08/25-best-jazz-motion-picture-scores.html
Interesting, ta
I listen to a lot of soundtracks. There are several kinds…there are those that are essentially compilations, probably starting with American Graffiti. There are those that become forever identified with a hit song (eg Absolute Beginners, Moon River, Midnight Cowboy etc) to the point where only the hardcore bother to listen to the rest of the soundtrack.
My favourites, though, are those take-no-prisoners soundtracks of the 50s and 60s, impeccably recorded and effortlessly played by crack jazzers and session men. (As an aside, was there ever a better time and place to be alive than to work as a session man in LA in the 50s and 60s? You were probably a hopeless junkie, but hey…Sinatra one day, Henry Mancini the next, The Monkees the next…) It’s good fun trying to match the music to what might be happening on the screen if you haven’t seen the movie.
So we’re talking Henry Mancini, Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith, Andre Previn, Johnny Mandel, Nelson Riddle, Miklos Rozsa, Quincy Jones, Lalo Schiffrin, Billy May – plus of course their Euro mates Morricone, Rota, Barry et al.
Here’s a couple of favourites. Elmer Bernstein’s theme to Walk on the Wild Side.
And another, more obscure (couldn’t stand the movie, all that shouting and argufying), but love the soundtrack – Alex North, Streetcar Named Desire.
Amazing list, Mike, I was deeply impressed v by your soundtrack knowledge I know the names but would be hard put to name the films they worked on.
Your list led to this in-depth Wiki article. Well worth a browse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_score
And also to this very informative Torygraph list of soundtracks.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10292813/What-are-the-greatest-film-scores-of-all-time.html
Did you know that ….
The Tarkus Hitmaker worked on Dario Argento’s Inferno.
Morrricone scored Carpenter’s The Thing.
We haven’t mentioned Goblin yet
Why anyone felt the need to remake Suspiria is beyond me.
I have now discovered that Keith Emerson worked on quite a few film scores. I stumbled across the tracks from this this jumbo box set on Spotify.
http://theprogressiveaspect.net/blog/2015/05/11/keith-emerson-at-the-movies/
The proggier members of our congregation probably knew all about this.
That is a good point about what a gamechanger the American Graffiti soundtrack was.
The doors opened for directors with remarkable record collections to make use of their favourites.
Hats off to Quentin for recycling this magnificent theme from the eponymous movie for Jackie Brown.
And the Coen Brothers for this amazing moment in the Big Lebowski
While trying to discover more, I stumbled across this list which is well worth a look.
https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/11/the-100-greatest-movie-soundtracks-of-all-time/4/
Suddenly soundtrack albums became something to look out for.,
Babylon.
I just stumbled across the American Film Institute’s Best 25 US film scores. It features many of the names mentioned by @mikethep.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years_of_Film_Scores
These guys were so versatile.
Elmer Bernstein (no relation to Leonard by the way) did the music for, to name a few. Animal House, To kill a mocking bird, Ghosbusters. The Magnificent Seven, Airplane. The Great Escape, the Ten Commandments etc etc
Oh the nostalgia! Animal House was enormous back in the day..
Reasonably obscure film – terrific soundtrack (which pops up in my head from time to time): Young Sherlock Holmes. It’s by Bruce Broughton, but has a real john Williams feel to it. Not sure if it’s on any streaming anywhere, but I’d definitely recommend it (and the film isn’t bad either).
And Bri says hi https://youtu.be/fxjxoQ3JMF0
Thanks Mr Wrongness. And Bri. A lovely track. Vladimir Cosma is a completely new name for me.
Slug mentioned above Richard Rodney Bennett’s splendid music for Murder on the Orient Express.
I now read that he did music for a TV adaptation of Gormenghast which seems to work rather well.
I continue to think of things that ought to be mentioned. But, as this playlist shows, we have covered a remarkable number of bases. And what an enjoyable journey it is proving to be!
This soundtrack bee continues to buzz in my bonnet.
Tumbled across this rater idiosyncratic list of great British soundtracks.
https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/15-great-british-film-scores
John Oliver clearly likes horror film and has some fine suggestions.
Mica Levi of Micachu and the Shapes did the score for Under the Skin! She is an interesting composer.
Here now is a very readable list of great soundtracks from the Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/mar/18/features.musicmonthly14
Particularly liked this quote about Bernard Hermann’s Psycho score:
“Not the most easy listening score from composer Bernard Herrmann, whose career ranged from Citizen Kane to Taxi Driver, with key Hitchcock collaborations including Vertigo and North by Northwest. Yet Psycho remains Herrmann’s most cutting-edge work, establishing an iconic shrieking strings motif which has become internationally recognisable as the quintessential sound of terror.
Hitchcock, who had originally planned to play the shower sequence without accompaniment, later admitted that ’33 per cent of the effect of Psycho was due to the music’, and doubled the composer’s salary as a reward. Herrmann studiously matched the black and white visuals of Hitch’s masterpiece by draining the ‘colour’ from his orchestrations, stripping away all but the stringed instruments to create a monochrome wall of aural unease.”
As it’s 70 years old this year. Happy Birthday to the Third Man.
Visited the Dritte Mann museum in Vienna, where different versions of the theme are lodged I recommended one version he didn’t know but here’s one by a popular beat combo.
Thanks Hubert! The Beatles salute Harry Lime! That really was something of a treat. Experienced covers band they were, I am sure they could learn new material rapidly.
The movie was released in 1949 and the Beatles version is from 1969. The song was a chestnut which had stood the test of time.
There cannot be many films that have a whole museum dedicated to them. Respect!
Wiki tells me that after the movie’s success, there was a prequel, a radio serial, The Adventures of Harry Lime starring Orson and using Karas’s music. Welles even wrote some of the episodes.
https://www.wellesnet.com/study-guide-lives-harry-lime-sheds-light-radio-series/
I vaguely remember the Harry Lime radio series from my childhood. I suppose it would have been on the BBC Light Programme (later renamed as Radio 2) or possibly the Home Service (which became Radio 4).
All 52 of the radio episodes, including the ones never broadcast in the UK, are now out of copyright and available for free download here. https://archive.org/details/TheLivesOfHarryLime
You may find them worth checking out. I know I shall.
What a find! @Mike_H.
I look forward to dipping into these and travelling back to the golden days of the radio. A quick listen to episode one, suggests they are a lot of fun.
This is rather interesting on how Orson threw himself into doing lots of radio shows.
https://www.storytel.com/se/sv/books/42403-Classic-Radio-Spotlights-Orson-Welles
And this academic abstract ponders the resurrection of anti-hero Lime.
https://academic.oup.com/adaptation/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/adaptation/apz010/5430050
Saw this doing A level French, and I’ve loved it ever since:
And I’ve always loved this by RT. It isn’t a singalonga, but it sticks:
Herzog and Thompson working together was a real meeting of giants.
It seems Mr T was not so keen on doing soundtrack work but due to his respect for the Werner H was prepared to join Henry Kaiser to do this,
Some beautiful playing by RT.
I suspect the great director was rather chuffed to be sitting in on moments like these.
Here’s the whole album. Enjoy!
What a discovery! A winner!
And everyone in America of a certain age knows this immediately. Mark Knopfler has done some cracking soundtrack work – to the extent that I have the Local Hero soundtrack CD
One thing that fascinated me was that this was from Rob Reiner’s quite wonderful, extremely post-modern film, The Princess Bride. Mark in fact wrote all the music for it.
A great triple treat there, Si,
As regards modern songwriters doing soundtracks, along with Mark Knopfler and Ry Cooder we should mention Mr Newman who has written some wonderful songs for the movies.
I was delighted to see that he has done the music for Marriage Story,
and
I was looking forward to it. Now I am looking forward to it even more.
Randy’s film work deserves a thread of its own!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_scored_by_Randy_Newman
Re: that new ‘Marriage Story’ film with music by Randy Newman.
Yeah … I’m looking forward to seeing it, too … if I can get to see it.
Like Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma”, “Marriage story” is a Netflix film. This means that it will have only a very limited cinema run on a couple of screens. After that, the only way to see it will be on Netflix (which I don’t have).
Kaisfatdad – you’ll have to make sure that you screen “Marriage story” at your very own Reflexen cinema, just as you did with “Roma”!
I will do my best to ensure that “my” cinema shows it, Duke. It will be a great feather in our cap, If it’s up for grabs, we are grabbing, grabbar!
Amazingly, we do actually have Netflix now, so you can come over to us!
A great feelgood movie with some great tunes:
Seeing Richard Thompson at work in the studio made me think of the ground-breaking soundtrack of Louis Malle’s Lift to the Scaffold which was improvised in the studio by Miles and his band.
Jazz was starting to make its mark in the soundtrack world.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/17/miles-davis-improvises-soundtrack
Even in Poland!
How could I forget to mention The Big Easy from 1986? A very enjoyable movie and a New Orleans soundtrack to die for.
A while back we had a poll about AWers favourite films. If I remember correctly, Local Hero won. So it is only fair that I post a song from Mark Knopfler’s excellent soundtrack.
Here’s another “rock” musician producing a top notch soundtrack.
Radiohead have never really interested me. Perhaps this will be my way in?
Apropos Jonny Greenwood, whose foppish hair probably annoys me as much as Thom Yorke’s never more pram face manbun, I confess his soundtracks have always just done their job, framed the film and stayed there. Until we watched ‘You Were Never really Here’, Lynne Ramsay’s superb film starring Joaquin Phoenix…. Fabulous soundtrack of clattery orchestral distort and clatter. Commended as much as the film.
Mrs P, who likes a bit of modern dance, was also taken with Mr Yorke’s score of Anima.
Thanks for that tip, @retropath2. And everyone else who contributed.
This thread has been a real ear-opener. From now on I will really be taking notice as to who has written a film’s music.
A western with a Leonard Cohen soundtrack! I suddenly remembered this 1971 Altman film
In the same year, Cat Stevens provided the songs for Hal Ashby’s cult classic Harold & Maude,
Quite incomprehensible that we have come so far and no one has mentioned Edgar Wright. He’s a director in whose films the soundtrack is often central to the action. In Baby Driver, for example, the protagonist always plays loud music on his Walkman when driving away from a heist.
One of Edgar’s fans has ut together this YT playlist featuring 48 of Mr W’s favourite soundtracks! That will keep me busy!