Thursday , January 14, 2010
nogoodforme IX: Best Movie Soundtracks Ever
Grease
Probably doesn't count, cuz all the songs were written for the musical, but I don't care! Grease has "Greased Lightning," and therefore is the greatest soundtrack in motion-picture history. That's song's #5 or #6 on my list of Stuff I'm Always Psyched to Hear; when LJ referenced it in her hydromatic post on Revolver last week, it was enough for me to jump up on the hood of my Honda Civic, do some karate moves, and then light my cigarette with a blow torch. It's weird that they don't bleep out "pussy wagon" when Grease plays on TNT. (Liz)
Dear Kenickie: Stop being so hot, you're destroying me. xo Liz
Lost Highway
I love David Lynch more than I do coffee, pie, or saddle shoes, but it was David Lynch that made me love these things in the first place. David Lynch movies are so singular and otherworldly; what I love about them is that they're about the strange miasmas lurking underneath placid surfaces. That, and they're bat-shit crazy, outrageously loony and audaciously, uniquely bizarre. Lost Highway is not my favorite film by Lynch. (I think Mulholland Drive might be my favorite, Blue Velvet his greatest and I have a special place in my heart for, um, Wild At Heart, which is my idea of a real relationship movie.) But for any card-carrying Bringer of Darkness, the goth/punk industrial soundtrack of Lost Highway is ten kinds of genius. Of course, Lynch always works with composer Angelo Badalamenti; the Lynch/Badalamenti collabo is genuinely one of the greatest in cinema. But in Lost Highway, the soundscape opens up to include selections from the usual suspects of a certain darkly glam-influenced ilk: David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein, Barry Adamson, etc. Normally most of these people are bands that I am indifferent towards (with the exception of Trent Reznor's Twitter.) But put together on one soundtrack to one hella fucked-up movie - it totally works, especially when next to the gorgeous transports of Badalamenti's work and one beautiful Antonio Carlos Jobim track. This soundtrack is the one time I ever really understood Marilyn Manson musically (he does a pretty wicked cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell On You.") I still don't fully get the movie, but you don't "get" Lynch - you kind of just go with it. (Except with Inland Empire...I have to admit that film eluded me.) (Kat)
This whole of Lost Highway is an extended OMG/WTF, and Robert Blake FREAKS me the fuck out (he makes his appearance about 1:30 minutes in and it's all "!!!!!!!!"):
Morvern Callar
This is my favorite movie that no one else has really seen, directed by the brilliant, genius Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, who also did the equally amazing Ratcatcher. Starring Samantha Morton as the titular supermarket clerk living in the isolated Scottish highlands, Morvern discovers her boyfriend has committed suicide on Christmas Eve, leaving her with the world's least insightful suicide note, a mixtape, money for his funeral, his unpublished novel and instructions on what to do with it. What she does after all this is not really the point--the film is less about plot and more about grief, isolation and a strange sort of spiritual transcendence, which takes Morvern from the drunken bars of Scotland to the Ecstasy-fueled club culture in Ibiza to the countryside of Spain in a visual tour-de-force. Throughout all the drugs, sex and near hallucinogenic experiences, Morvern obsessively listens to her boyfriend's mix tapes, which are a keen, canny mix of Can, Velvet Underground, Broadcast, Aphex Twin, Lee "Scratch" Perry and other leftfield musos. I left the theatre after seeing Morvern Callar pretty stunned by the combination of such awesome music paired with Ramsay's searing images, and the result is the highest compliment I could give a filmmaker: I can't hear some of these songs without seeing the scenes from Morvern Callar in my head, so intertwined they are now in my imagination. In my case this is a good thing, Morvern Callar being one of the most mysteriously beautiful, mystical, soulful movies about a girl that has ever existed. (Kat)
The final scene of Morvern Callar, set to the Mamas and Papas:
Natural Born Killers
Oh, Reznorface, you really outdid yourself on this one. I don't even like half the tracks on this record, but Natural Born Killers still wins because: (a) it was the first album to let 16-year-old me know that there's a world of Patti Smith beyond "Because the Night," (b) "Sex Is Violent" is maybe the first-ever mash-up, made from the scariest pieces of "Ted, Just Admit It" by Jane's Addiction and Diamanda Galas's cover of "I Put a Spell on You," and (c) even though that pasting-snippets-of-film-dialogue-throughout-the-soundtrack thing started a kinda-annoying trend, it's done really brilliantly here. (Liz)
I also think it's cool that the soundtrack's got this scene with Juliette Lewis singing "Born Bad":
Pretty in Pink
To be clear: I've been sick of OMD's "If You Leave" for about 20 years now, and if I never hear it again, it'll be too soon. Also: "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" was used so much more geniusly in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. That only leaves eight songs, but one of them's that Psychedelic Furs jam, which counts two dozens times over cuz it's so damn perfect. But I still wish the soundtrack were a bit longer, mostly so I could have that fantastic New Order song that plays while Molly Ringwald's making her terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad prom dress. When I went home for Easter this year, that track ("Thieves Like Us") played on the airport P.A. right before I boarded my flight, and then my plane's name was "Blue Monday." It was New Order day! Why don't I own any New Order records? (Liz)
Another song I wish was on the PIP soundtrack is "Positively Lost Me" by The Rave-Ups:
Purple Rain
Purple Rain is kind of the insane movie that only the 80s could have produced: it's pretty sexist and trashy, and yet kind of amazing in its audacious Prince-ness. I can't quite articulate what Prince-ness is; I can only tell you that it involves being kind of an innovative egomaniac genius that nevertheless gets away with it because he's pervy and fun at the same time. Prince always means well, even if you don't understand him, which is why you kind of get over Apollonia being such a lame character in Purple Rain. I mean, how can you take any movie seriously that has Morris Day and the Time as your main antagonist? For reals! It is SO FUN to get trashed and sing along to this movie, and if you ever, ever get a chance to see Purple Rain at a midnight screening, do it. It will kind of change your life. This soundtrack has my third-favorite and fourth-favorite Prince songs of all time, "Take Me With U" and "Darling Nikki" respectively. In a bit of nogoodforme trivia, Purple Rain was the first tape I ever bought on my own, and I still think it's one of the greatest albums in rock history. (Kat)
Can you take these dudes seriously as an antagonist? I think not:
Singles
I kind of was banking on Liz doing the Singles soundtrack so I could put down The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which are two radically different soundtracks for two radically different films. Directed by Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a melancholy musical starring Catherine Deneuve in which every single line is sung; the movie looks like a candy confection but its heart is sad and blue. Singles, of course, is the total Seattle grungefest, so epochal in its snapshot of a musical culture that I would daresay that the soundtrack has probably outlived the film in terms of greatness; the only thing missing on it is Nirvana, but other than that, it's almost a historical document. I'm sure there are more sophisticated uses of Screaming Trees and Pearl Jam found on film soundtracks, but there were none that were ever so zeitgeist-y or "all killer, no filler"--there's not a bum cut on here. You could put this in a time capsule and have aliens listen to it four eons later, and they would totally get what grunge was about. And then they would be perpetually humming "Dyslexic Heart" in whatever alien dialect they spoke in for about a year till they drove themselves crazy. (Kat)
The video for Alice in Chains' "Would?":
And just for fun, the opening credits to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, one of my favorite movies ever:
Velvet Goldmine
It's so hard to keep track of all the many phases my undying David Bowie obsession's gone through: First there was the "My Mom Bought Me a Serious Moonlight Tour T-Shirt; As Such, I Am Way Cooler Than Everyone Else" (age five), and most recently we had "Oh My Gosh, David Bowie Was So Funny on Extras, Let's Watch the YouTube clip 87 Times in a Row" (age 29). But probably the most all-consuming, brain-invading, soul-melting, life-changing Bowie phase coincided with the VHS release of Velvet Goldmine, which I maybe viewed thrice-weekly from the summer of '99 to the following springtime. Of course, there's no Bowie on the soundtrack, but there's my favorite Lou Reed song, my second favorite Brian Eno song, my third favorite Roxy Music song, my fourth favorite T. Rex song, and lots of sexy covers by the Venus in Furs (a stupidly named supergroup starring Thom Yorke). For more foxy Bowie-related soundtrackage, see Labyrinth and the "Bowie" episode of Flight of the Conchords. (Liz)
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, video star:
Wings of Desire
I actually think that the Ry Cooder soundtrack to Paris, Texas wins the "Most Amazing Score of a Wim Wenders Film" award, but I'm putting Wings of Desire down here, simply because it has such sentimental value for me, a value so strong that not even making a lame Nicholas Cage version of it would spoil things. I saw Wings of Desire at a time in my life when I started realizing films could do more than just record stories for entertainment - that film could be about poetry, rock, and sex, that it could be as intellectual or visceral as you wanted it to be. Seeing Wings of Desire (along with Breathless and La Jetee) as a seventeen-year old was kind of important to me in becoming a filmmaker and deciding to eschew normal adult life in order to pursue it. It also was responsible for me listening to "From Her to Eternity" for the first time and thus beginning a Nick Cave obsession that has lasted me for decades. (He is so beautiful in this movie, it's unreal.) There's a visceral version of it here, alongside Cave's "The Carny," as well as a stunning track from Crime and the City Solution. It sits next to Bruno Ganz's lovely readings of the Peter Handke poem that figures heavily in the film, as well as the beautiful strings-dominated instrumentation of Jurgen Kneiper. This is a genuine film score, one that evokes the somber, melancholy beauty of the film and yet manages to shimmer well on its own. (Kat)
Nick Cave in "Wings of Desire" (check out those beautiful camera movements at the beginning of the scene):
Tags: Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, aliens, David Bowie, David Lynch, Flight of the Conchords, Grease, grunge, Lynne Ramsay, Molly Ringwald, Morvern Callar, New Order, Nick Cave, Pretty in Pink, Prince, Purple Rain, Singles, The Smiths, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Trent Reznor, Wim Wenders, Wings of Desire
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Remembering going to see a lot of these when they first came out makes me feel old! I distinctly remember seeing Purple Rain...
By WendyB on June 23, 2009 12:40 PM
totally agree with the love for morvern callar, both the film and the soundtrack. this is where i discovered can and holger czukay! recently rewatched it and it is breathtaking. i can't wait for another lynne ramsay movie!
By juliet small ernst on June 24, 2009 12:55 PM
Juliet, Lynne Ramsay's actually working on a film with Tilda Swinton next! The idea is pure excitement.
xo k.
By Kat
on June 24, 2009 11:36 PM
Some of my favorites:
- The Graduate: iconic soundtrack by Simon and Garfunkel, featuring gems like The Sounds of Silence, Scarborough Fair and Mrs. Robinson.
- Harold and Maude: breezy Cat Stevens songs that match perfectly the movie. This soundtrack creates some beautiful moments in the story.
- Almost Famous: Cameron Crowe always comes up with great soundtracks, even when the films are not good. This soundtrack includes Elton John, The Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Bowie and Cat Stevens.
- Forrest Gump: I'm no fan of the movie, but the variety of the songs is amazing. The track list covers some of the musical highlights of the last 40 years, including Aretha, Randy Newman, Four Tops, The Mamas and The Papas, Elvis, Dylan, Beach Boys, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Harry Nilsson, among others.
- I'm Not There: amazing covers of all the Dylan songs presented in the movie. Todd Haynes is great with his soundtracks too.
- Darjeeling Limited: The Kinks and indian music. I don't need anything more. I love all things Wes Anderson. The guy knows his stuff.
By Marianne on June 29, 2009 1:24 AM