Music in the Movies An Overview by Gisell Calderon
Directors have been turning to contemporary musicians for their musical needs, commissioning bands to step out of studios and to fill cinemas with their tunes. Here are my favorite band/director collaborations.
Blue Valentine
(Dir. Derek Cianfrance) - Grizzly Bear
Director Derek Cianfrance always planned on having Grizzly Bear score Blue Valentine, a brutal examination of love and marriage. However, due to a number of production halts and Grizzly Bear’s preparation for their upcoming album, Veckatimest, plans for an original score ultimately fell through. Luckily for the filmmaker, Grizzly Bear’s already cinematic instrumentals were more than enough to boost the emotional power of the film. Drawing from their preexisting work to reinterpret the story of all-Americans Cindy and Dean, Cianfrance creates a world pushed along by the band’s seemingly aimless yet formulaic chamber-pop. Although this falls flat at times, where the image becomes jarred by the music, gritty guitars and dreamy synths discordantly work together to parallel the couple’s attempts to maintain a failing marriage.
Her
Where The Wild Things Are
When discussing their role in scoring Spike Jonze’s hipster flick, Her, Arcade Fire instrumentalist William Butler (otherwise known as Win’s brother) said, “We’re just rock musicians; we don’t really know how to do it.” While this is, like, so rock-and-roll, his statement proved to be sorely contradicted, as the score was an overnight hit. In a partnership seemingly comprised of Canada’s greatest hits, the Montreal-based band teamed up with Ontario-native Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy, bringing together an Oscar-worthy arrangement of guitars, violins, and wailing synths. In addition, Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs co-wrote the skin-bare “Moon Song” along with then-boyfriend Jonze, snagging an Oscar nomination. Working from the director’s intention in avoiding the typical electronica found in most films set in the future (THANK YOU), the musicians create a more human sound to accompany the awkward protagonist’s romantic journey with an operating system who slowly becomes aware of how horny she is.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ frontwoman Karen O probably wasn’t completely out of her realm when writing music for this classic children’s tale. Known for her antics on stage, imaginative fashion, and playful vocals, the frontwoman embraced her inner child to produce an unforgettable, award-winning soundtrack. The Kids’ part of the ensemble includes Yeah Yeah Yeahs bandmates Nick Zinner and Brian Chase, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, Dean Fertita and Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs, Oscar Michel of Gris Gris, the Bird and the Bees’ Greg Kurstin, and a rowdy children’s choir. The ragtag bunch of musicians, led by O, create a charming world of music, filled with shouting, laughter, and clapping. Interwoven with the playful tunes are more vulnerable tracks, like “Hideaway” and “Worried Shoes,” oftentimes adding more complexity to the film than, well, the film does.
(Dir. Spike Jonze) - Arcade Fire, Owen Pallet, Karen O
(Dir. Spike Jonze) - Karen O & the Kids
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
(Dir. Edgar Wright) - Nigel Godrich, Beck, and many more This is my favorite because I wish that the fictional garage band Sex Bob-omb actually existed. Distorted acoustic guitars coupled with Stephen Stills singing, “I’ll take you for a ride … on my garbage truck” = instant swoon. We have Beck to thank for that because he’s the musical engine behind the Nintendo-inspired rock group. Other musical giants in this marauders list are Broken Social Scene, Metric, Kid Koala (providing sound for the Katayanagi twins), Black Lips, and Dan the Automator. But perhaps the biggest contender here is Nigel Godrich, the unofficial 6th member of Radiohead. Acting as the film’s sountrack producer, Godrich maintains and produces a score that encapsulates Scott’s attempts to balance his hipster, grunge, and nonnerdom all at once.
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