I would like to hear some people opinion about how important a good soundtrack is to them, and does it make a difference in the movie.
Also which are your favorite?
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I would like to hear some people opinion about how important a good soundtrack is to them, and does it make a difference in the movie.
Also which are your favorite?
My all time favorite soundtrack has to be without a doubt the single zither in The Third Man. No other film has ever used a soundtrack like it, and escpecially when it was conventional to use an orchestra at the time. The zither is so perfect, for it completely reflects the atmosphere of the film; quirky, cynical, confused, lonley.
Now as for original orchestral scores I think the obvious choices are anything by Bernard Herman, from his haunting score in Vertigo to his jazzy and solitude ridden score in Taxi Driver.
As for soundtracks with music made prior to the production, I would have to say that anything made by Stanley Kubrick or Martin Scorsese. Nobody knows how to use pre-recorded music in a film better than those two guys. Prime examples are 2001: A Space Odyssey and Mean Streets.
I love Jerry Goldsmith's dodecaphonic soundtrack to the original Planet of the Apes. It's an accomplished piece of music as well as an appropriately disturbing soundtrack to the sci-fi movie.
Scorcese's The Departed, though, had a soundtrack of instantly-recognizable classic hits more fitting for an SUV commercial. Which, come to think of it, the movie itself was no better than.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielBenoit
Regards,
Istvan
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Scorsese's use of recognizable classic hits are used because it associates the audience with a time and place. Pop soundtracks have been used since the 60's and not only by Scorsese.Quote:
Originally Posted by Babbalanja
I love the soundtrack to M*A*S*H: Endless bickering and mumbling :lol:
I loved the departed soundtrack, especially Gimme Walter, comfortably numb and shipping out to bostonQuote:
Originally Posted by Babbalanja
I prefer the sparse, eccentric soundtrack to After Hours. As well as the movie itself.Quote:
Originally Posted by rimbaud
Regards,
Istvan
A few Favorites:
28 Weeks Later
Fight Club
Mulholland Drive
The only movie soundtrack I've got on my PC is Stardust, which was a fantastic film. I also used to have the soundtracks to Kill Bill and 28 Days Later but lost them in a format... they were good stuff.
Oh, I've also got the various soundtracks to the revived Dr Who - Murray Gold is an incredible composer.
Ohh, almost forgot. Almost all David Lynch films have great eerie soundtracks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eryk
Happen to watch Vertigo last night and it's the first time I actually was swept away by that soundtrack. It might be because this is a new release and restoration and I was listening on headphones. Yes, I agree, Daniel, when you say:
"Now as for original orchestral scores I think the obvious choices are anything by Bernard Herman, from his haunting score in Vertigo to his jazzy and solitude ridden score in Taxi Driver."
I recall that Taxi Driver also had a great soundtrack!
Now this is one of my favorite subjects - soundtracks! Most of you have all mentioned the edgy, tense, erie type soundtracks and for my own general enjoyment when not viewing the film I can't listen too long to those without getting a bit depressed or edgy myself. However, I do find myself going back to certain artists and their soundtracks. I guess I like more romantic ones, but with a lot of variation thoughout...nothing sappy, mind you. I love John Williams, Patrick Doyle, John Barry, and many more composers. I collect as many soundtracks as I can. I will find my list and list some here when I have the time. I also love any of the Broadway show soundtracks. I have collections of each - film and shows.
Edward Scissorhands
The Virgin Suicides
Pan's Labyrinth
Sound is a powerful tool. It doesn't need to be used to make a good movie but it can be used to strengthen the effect of what's being expressed visually. In my opinion, that's what a moving film score does.
Apart from music, movies have also made custom sounds that have helped make fictional objects and characters seem more real. I think Pan's Labyrinth did an amazing job with it's creaky faun and creepy blind guy....
virgin suicides definitely
and Magnolia.... love amy mann
oh and legend of 1900, lovely piano and jazz
The Skeleton Key Soundtrack is good
Wristcutters
Zac and Miri Make a Porno (Pixies, Primus and there's a Live song on there...I never really cared for Live all that much but it takes me back to the '90's.)
Favorite soundtrack: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer hands down.
Favorite movie. Hmm. Depends on the day. It's a three headed coin toss up between State of Play, The Chronicles of Riddick, and Perfume.
I've always enjoyed the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" soundtrack in its own right.
As for a soundtrack's relationship to film -- well, I know many of the movie fans here would likely disagree with me, but I think the soundtrack is THE most important element to modern film. A soundtrack either outright creates the emotional elements of a film or catalyzes them from inert to hyperactive.
I'd have to agree, Comedian. Good God. The taiko drumming in that soundtrack is fabulous. And 'Farewell' always strikes a deep chord in my heart.
I am embarrassed to say I rather like the synthesized epic scores composed by Hans Zimmer -- 'Gladiator' in particular.
More later when I'm not procrastinating.
Oh wow Modi, don't be embarrassed at all. I love Gladiator soundtrack! I like Zimmer's SD's, too. Fine scores indeed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Modigliani
I like the soundtrack to Last of the Mohicans by Trevor Jone, Randy Edelman.
I like soundtracks by Horner as well.
Here are some of the soundtracks I own and enjoy:
Movies - Soundtrack Recordings
Amelie
Anna and The King
Batman Returns
Dances with Wolves
Deep blue ~ George Fenton
Don Juan DeMarco
Elizabeth
English Patient, The
Ever After
Forever Young
Free Willie
Gladiator
Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone
Hope Floats
Horse Whisperer, The
Hours,The
I am Sam
I Dreamed of Africa
Last of the Mohicans
Legends of the Fall
Life is Beautiful
Lord of the Rings ~ Return of the King
Merlin
Message in a Bottle
Mirror Has Two Faces, The
Nostradamus
Out of Africa
Pianist, The
Piano, The
Room With a View
Schindler's List
Shakespeare in Love
Somersby
Somewhere in Time
Star Wars Episode 1 The Phantom Menace
Titanic ~ James Horner
Three Musketeers, The
Kenneth Branagh films
By Patrick Doyle
Much Ado About Nothing
Love's Labours Lost
Hamlet
Henry V
Sense and Sensibility
As You Like It
Dead Again
Frankenstein
Othello ~ Charlie Mole
The Proposition ~ Stephen Endelman
I think I have more than this now since I have added to this list since I compiled it.
I also have Broadway play film SD's. I will list those soon.
Odd, sometimes I have hated the movie and loved the soundtrack! haha....well, at least there was some saving grace to the experience.
One of my all time favorite soundtracks is Room with a View, however, I didn't like the film at all.
Favorite Disney soundtrack is Beauty and the Beast.
that's my fav Disney too, soundtrack and movieQuote:
Originally Posted by Lynne50
as for the disney songs I also liked "A whole new world" from Aladdin, and "Once upon a December" from Anastasia
Hi Lynne! Room with a View is one of my favorite SD's, too; but unlike you, I love the movie. Did you ever read the book? Only thing about the movie, that I didn't like was Cecil; played by Daniel Day-Lewis; he seemed like such a nit-wit! I couldn't imagine Lucy even looking twice at him, let alone agreeing to marry him. Odd that I failed to mention Room With a View; I thought that was in my Opera section and I was thinking about it when I did list the first ones...apparently I just failed to put it on the list.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynne50
I hated the film Legends of the Fall and recently found the soundtrack to be great.
Here's my Disney favorites an my Film/Broadway show soundtracks.
My favorite Disney one is also Beauty and the Beast. The Lion King is pretty great, too.
Here's some more of my soundtracks:
Disney
The Lion King
Beauty and the Beast
Fantasia
Others composers (New Age)~ Movies/Films
El Greco ~ Vangelis
Themes ~ Vangelis
Chariots of Fire ~ Vangelis
Antarctica ~ Vangelis
Blader Runner ~ Vangelis
Musicals - Movie Soundtrack Recording
Annie Get You Gun
Oklahoma
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music (Revival Cast)
The King and I
Moulin Rouge
The Man of La Mancha
Camelot
Carousel
South Pacific
South Pacific (Original Broadway Cast)
Miss Saigon (Original London Cast)
Dralion Cirque Du Soleil
Love (Beatles arrangements) Cirque Du Soleil
Les Miserables
Phantom of the Opera
Kismet
Opera
Madame Butterfly (Richard Troxel and Ying Huang)
Other/Mixes
John Williams by Request
Broadway's Greatest Love Songs
The Definitive Performances - Movie Music (2 Discs)
I've been listening to the RocknRolla soundtrack, since these days I'm watching Guy Ritchie movies, and it's pretty cool
Just saw The Third Man again. May I please say again that its zither soundtrack is the greatest use of music in a film?
I looove Wendy Carlos's re-synthesizing of Beethoven and Rossini in A Clockwork Orange
Also, I'm lovin' the score from Psycho and the poetically despairing score from Bela Tarr's Werkmeister Harmonies is utterly mezmerizing, as is the movie.
Don't mean to change the subject, but how about uses of silence (or lack of music) in films? Prime examples that come to mind are:
The encounter with the Nazi general in The Pianist
The climax of Goodbye Solo
The emergency exit scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey (possibly the greatest)
The whole of No Country for Old Men
The whole of The Conversation
The climax of Rear Window
The hospital mob scene from Werckmeister Harmonies
will think of some more
Kill Bill! God, that's awesome!
Wouldn't call it a favourite but I like the soundtrack from "The Last of the Mohicans".
Goes well with the mountains and forests and sounds good on the pipes too.
The soundtracks to "Enemy at the Gates" and "Last of the Mohicans" are awesome, but probably my all time favorite is the soundtrack to "Black Hawk Down". Parts of that soundtrack are just gut-wrenching.
I have to agree with Daniel Benoit about The Third Man soundtrack. No other music could have better accompanied this story of corruption in divided post-war Vienna. Here is the poignant ending to the film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5icX835oyh4
Another British film that was a huge success and made about the same time was The Legend of the Glass Mountain with a soundtrack by the great Nino Rota who later worked on many of Fellini's films. A loosely told narrative is written over the scenic pictorialisation of the video; which erroneously gives the composer as Ron Goodwin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNfU0gv7Dw8
The Commitments
all that soul music, does a body good....:D
enisson and Hurricane, I was going to mention "Last of the Mohicans"...I love that soundtrack!Quote:
Originally Posted by Hurricane
I was watching "Lawrence of Arabia" last night and for an epic soundtrack, that is one of the best ever! The music and photography make that movie...truly stunning and sweeping epic music - love it!
I like the soundtrack to "Cider House Rules", "The Piano", and "Schindler's List"....I will think of more. I collect as many as I can.
I'm no movie buff. The only one that sticks out for me is Saturday Night Fever. ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmBhR...rom=PL&index=3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69VsA...eature=related
http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_art...er.article.jpgQuote:
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man, no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm.
I've been kicked around since I was born.
And now it's all right, it's O.K.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother,
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin'
And ev'rybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.
Stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.
etc....
Virgil, I loved that one too, back in the day! :D Good one to bring up:thumbs_up. I also loved the soundtrack to "The Graduate" and a lot of other films from around that era. I will watch the Youtube clips later; cooking dinner now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
Ohh yeah, beautifully melancholic stuff there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Janine
Which one, "The Graduate"....Simon and Garfunkel? I just saw their old concert in the park on DVD - wowy, they were amazing! I still love their beautiful blending of voices - very melancholic and lovely and melodic, it that how you spell it - melodic?Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielBenoit
The 'sweeping' score to "Lawrence of Arabia" married to the 'sweeping' wide-angle shots of the desert, absolutely 'sweep' one away to another time and place..it's a magic carpet ride indeed! I am still viewing the movie and loving every minute. It makes one see how Lawrence could love the desert in his real life experience. If I recall correctly in the film, when asked why he loved the desert so, he answers "it's clean"...interesting reply. The desert scenes are very pure looking. I will have to be sure to review the movie in the movie thread.
Do you guys like Clint Mansell's ones?
metamorphoser, welcome to the forum. I am sorry, but I don't know who that composer is. I just found an extensive list of composers on Wikipedia. Your composer, most likely, is on this list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...core_composers
An inovative composer of soundtracks who I have always liked a lot is: Jean Michael Jarre. I know he wrote the score for a little known film back in the 70's called "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud". I've wanted to buy that film for sometime since a friend, years ago told me it was a fascinating film. I think I may have seen it back then and the parts of the soundtrack I owned on other Jarre records (at the time CD's were non-existent!). I have seen his name crop up often in other films of a more recent time, so I guess the composer is still going strong. Interesting New Age sound. I think he was a major pioneer of the genre.
Another interesting composer is Peter Gabriel. He did the soundtrack for the film "Rabbit Proof Fence"...excellent film about 3 children walking 'the fence' to free themselves from tyranny by the British government; back in the 50's (I think); they walk thousands of miles to return to their native mothers in the remote regions of the country...set entirely in Australia, the film and his creative score really captures the awesome, remote, and fascinating aspects of the Australian outback and deserts...amazing film and great score!
I agree - the scores to Tarantino movies have been great. Do you know if he picks the same composer each time?Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
Scher, I love that soundtrack as well and know all the songs, too. The film is so stunning. Unfortunately, I only own it on VHS, but it's a good print. I should re-watch that one soon. I love Audrey Hepburn...she is so stunning in that evening gown scene. One of my all time favorite songs has been since high school days - "On the Street Where You Live"....Quote:
I absolutely adore "My Fair Lady"... Know all the songs more or less by heart.
The music selection in the film Killer of Sheep perfectly fits the mood of the picture. See this movie! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nXw-8MXhVE
An interesting story behind the music in the film: Director Charles Burnett was shooting this film on a super-tight budget for his Masters Thesis in college using gritty black-and-white and non-professional actors. In fact, most of the films budget came out of buying rights to the music, which in fact prevented the film from being widely released for thirty years.
My favorites are:
Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Pulp Fiction
Trick or Treat
Cabaret
The Commitments
The Lost Boys
Rent
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
One of my favs currently playing in VH1: 'When You Say Nothing at All' from Notting Hill.
The opera aria "Vide Cor Meum" from Hannibal. The first time Dante was put to music. It's beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2Wv5AvqzfE
Just saw V for Vendetta for the first time. The 1812 Overture was used rather powerfully. It was a good passionate movie.
I love the soundtrack to Birth and The Hours. And even though everyone says his soundtracks are all so similar, I like the things from Memoirs of a Geisha by John Williams. The Piano just makes me...feel so much. Oh, and I love this old film Aleksandr Nevsky. The music has been turned into a cantata for choir and orchestra. Beautiful mezzo-soprano movement.