FPA 289 2012	efilm music		lecture support page
FPA 289 Film Music: Resource List

 

Week 1 F i l m s:

Film	Composer	Director	Date	Notes
Napoleon	Carmine Coppola	Abel Gance	1927	Example of complete score for silent film
Black Pirate	Mortimer Wilson	Albert Parker	1926	Example of complete score for a silent film
Wings		William Wellman	1927	Example of classic silent film acting w/ intertitles and continuous organ music
Ghost Dog	RZA	Jim Jarmusch	1999	Hip hop score - note reference to samurai with gong
Jazz Singer	James Monaco, Louis Silvers, Irving berlin (songs)	Alan Crossland	1927	One of the earliest synchronous sound films.
Edward Scissorhands	Danny Elfman	Tim Burton	1990	Overture/opening titles - music of the fantastic
Dances with Wolves	John Barry	Kevin Costner	1990	Overture/opening titles - music of the hero/military
Man on Fire	Harry Gregson-Williams	Tony Scott	2004	Overture/opening titles - music suggests place and narrative arc

Week 2 F i l m s:

Film	Composer	Director	Date	Notes
Pay It Forward	Thomas Newman	John Lee Hancock	2004	Example of diegetic or source music where the characters are aware of the music.
High Anxiety	John Morris	Mel Brooks	1977	2nd example of diegetic or source music where the characters are aware of the music. Also example of where non-diegetic music humourously transforms to diegetic with the appearance of the bus of symphony musicians.
Mildred Pierce	Max Steiner	Michael Curtiz	1945	Music stopping on action example.
Once Upon a Tme in the West	Ennio Morricone	Sergio Leone	1968	Exploration of the use of Leit Motifs for the main characters.
Pirates of the Caribbean (At Worlds' End)	Hans Zimmer	Gore Verbinski	2007	Music "borrowed" from Morricone's Once Upon a Time in the West.
The Informer	Max Steiner	John Ford	1935	Mickey Mousing & classic Steiner theme and variation.
King Kong	Max Steiner	Marian Cooper	1933	Early example of "Mickey Mousing".
Key Largo	Max Steiner	John Huston	1948	Classic Steiner underscoring of dialogue, cliché of Native American Indian music.
Star Wars: Episode II (The Attack of the Clones)	John Williams	George Lucas	2002	Darth Vader's theme as example of structural use of music.
L'Atalante	Maurice Jaubert	Jean Vigo	1934	Early examples of diegetic and non-diegetic music.
Do the Right Thing	Bill Lee	Spike Lee	1989	Music only example - setting of mythic place through music conventions.
The Carnival of Animals - The Aquarium	Camille St. Saens	music work	1886	Influential work - very much in the film music mode.

Week 3 F i l m s:

Casablanca, 1942 Max Steiner, d. Michael Curtiz
Adventures of Robin Hood, 1943, Erich Korngold, Michael Curtiz
Song of Bernadette, 1943, Alfred Newman, Henry King
Laura, 1944, David Raksin, Otto Preminger
(Informer, 1935, Max Steiner, John Ford)
Best Years of Our Lives, 1946, Hugo Friedhofer, Wiliam Wyler
Double Indemnity, Miklos Roszsa, Billy Wilder
The Informer, 1935, Max Steiner, John Ford
Music for the Movies:The Hollywood Sound, 1995

Week 4 F i l m s:

A. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) m. Alex North, d. Elia Kazan,
First substantial use of jazz in film (other than source music). Opened the door for jazz in Hollywood. North’s first score for Kazan.  North had done the incidental music for Death of a Salesman (d. by Kazan) in N.Y. See quote, p.105, Prendergast (P) Note - Kazan had first used jazz and Dixieland in "Panic in the Streets" (1950) with Benny Carter on sax.
Cued to whistling sailor (jazz) in streetcar terminal. Ff to apt. interior as Blanche stubs out cigarette on the bureau. Interrupted by the train passing, the music stops with Stanley.

B. The Man with a Golden Arm (1955) m Elmer Bernstein, d. Otto Preminger. 
Main title music became a popular song.  See quote p 109 (P). 
Important also to note that the success of the Main titles spawned a great number of shoddy imitations (jazz became in for a while...)
Opening on set/street: Source or score?
Note shift to interior of bar and how music changes
Note entry of the theme
Fight with noise takes us to stairs and a solo – underscore of dialogue.
Franky Machine turns on the radio as a source for his drumming (source).

C. On the Waterfront (1954) Leonard Bernstein, d. Elia Kazan
Note how Kazan brought first rate composers to Hollywood.  Important composer, but film music is quite flawed.  This sequence, from the opening begins with orchestral percussion, then other instruments are added.

D. Elevator to the Gallows (1957/58) m. Miles Davis, d Louis Malle
Film scored as an improvisation session: Miles’ group was in Europe touring and Malle brought the film into the studio.  The approach was a quintessential jazz one. In sequence (18' into the film, there is an attempt at suggesting that the music is "source" - the woman turns the radio knob in the car and the volume decreases. This scene may have influenced Godard? In each film, it is virtually the first music cue after the titles.

E. Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) (1959) m. Martial Solal, d. Jean Luc Godard. 
Very influential film (French New Wave).  Quirky score with various idoms, in particular jazz based elements which don’t follow the conventional rules of scoring.  Note character's singing, etc. and the use of the radio again as suggested source.

F. A Touch of Evil (1958) m. Henry Mancini, d. Orson Welles. (CD, Video)
Mancini’s first film score, the elements (congas, jazz idioms, etc.) match the setting and the characters (juvenile deliquents smoking “reefers” the sordid decay of Welle’s Sheriff etc. This scene is extremely influential in film history.  New release has different music placement and the opening theme is removed.

G. Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Duke Ellington, Otto Preminger
Note the use of source (piano playing by Stewart character) at start of sequence.  Much source music in the film: radio, records and club scenes. Of note is Ellington  (called Pie Eye in the film) and Stewart at the piano in a little roadhouse! FF to opening of the office.

H. I Want to Live (1958) Johnny Mandel,  Robert Wise
Gerry Mulligan plays the love interest and the horn.  Note in this sequence how the music moves from source to score. Again, much of the music is scource motivated  throughout

I. Shadows (1959) Charlie Mingus, John Cassavetes
Film and director refer to notion of improvisation. Note the lack of reference in the music to the abandonment of the boyfriend by the girl. [2] 12:35 Horn solo example
              [5] 31:48 “Ain’t love grand?”

J. The Pawnbroker (1965) m. Quincy Jones, d. Sydney Lumet
Strong use of both jazz & contemporary writing. Start of Jone’s career,

N. Naked Lunch (1992) Howard Shore & Ornette Coleman, David Cronenberg
Quote from Howard Shore p. 338 (Brown) cue video @ 31:32 for music.

Contemporary Styles

O. On the Beach (1959) m. Ernest Gold, d. Stanely Kramer
            Use of 12 tone (atonal) writing to signify the “other” of the devastation of nuclear radiation.

P. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) m. Elmer Bernstein, d. Robert Mulligan
Opening music has child’s voice and piano, suggesting poignancy of the story and memory and innocence.  Excellent opening title sequence. Bernstein referred to the music as “child-adult music”. It needed to reference Atticus and his daughter as well as the place and time and the daughter as grown woman and narrator. Music contains harmonic sophistication of adult world with some child-like charm and simplicity. Small, intimate ensemble

Musicals/Songs Video List 2012

Broadway Melody, Freed/Brown, Harry Beaumont, 1929 DVD

1^st “All Talking! All Singing! All Dancing movie and the progenitor of the classic Hollywood musical. Screen audience is the camera as well. Structured around the show.

42nd Street, Lloyd Bacon, Harry Warren 1933 QT

Back stage to big Busby Berkely number note: drama/song/ alternating.

Cabaret, John Kander, Bob Fosse, 1972 DVD

Tomorrow Belongs to Me, Opening # Note the source motivation, true throughout the movie.

Dancer in the Dark, Lars Von Trier, Björk, 2001 DVD

Musical numbers in the traditional form.

Three penny (Beggar's) Opera, Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht, G.W.Pabst, 1931 QT

Opening scene - music has strong roots in the diegesis. Mack the Knife!

WestSide Story, Robert Wise/Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, 1961 DVD

Broadway musical brought to the screen. Note drama segue to song (like Bollywood).

Life On a String, Kaige Chen, music Xiau-Song Qu, 1991 QT

Song in a drama – note again the traditional Hollywood transition and treatment.

Across the Universe, Beatles, Julie Taymor, 2007 DVD

Contemporary film musical – songs emerge from diegesis but staged/fantasy a la Julie Taymor…

Swades (We the People), Ashutosh Gowariker, A.R. Rahman, 2004 DVD

Using radio as source, we’re lead into a song and dance number.

Devdas, Sanjay Bhansali, m Monty, 2002, DVD

Classic staged song with dance, costumes, etc.

Once, Glen Hansard/Marketa Irglova, 2007 DVD

Musical – all songs from the diegesis in a naturalistic mode.

Music Video

Hard Days Night, d. Richard Lester, 1964 QT

First song – after 12 minutes of conventional comedy. Note transition as song moves from score to “music video” as characters slowly begin to sing and eventually acquire instruments. Transitions back to diegesis at end.

Performance, d. Nicholas Roeg, various , 1970 DVD

Music video in the film: Memo from Turner

Gangsta’s Paradise Video, Coolio Feat, LV QT

Music video/film tie-in

Live Music

The Commitments, Alan Parker, 1992 DVD

Song being rehearsed by different characters in different locations – sutures, lip sync, etc.

Nashville, Richard Baskin, Robert Altman, 1975 DVD

Actors compose songs themselves: Opening studio sequence, I Never Get Enough. Note that the actors wrote and sang the songs themselves. "I'm Easy" won best song, Academy Awards for Keith Carradine.

Distant Voices, Still Lives,  Terence Davies, 1988 IT

Singing at the party – rewind to accapella singing under the opening sequence.

Silkwood, Georges Delerue, Mike Nichols, 1983 QT

Singing on the porch–where is the orchestra? –classic diegetic confusion

Several examples of either fantasy musical numbers, source music or songs as soundtrack. Here we have Jagger singing off screen then on.

Edward II, Derek Jarman, Simon Fisher Turner, 1992 QT

Annie Lennox appears to sing a song.

Wings of Desire,  Various, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Wim Wenders, 1988 DVD

Cabaret - song comments on the story - "Carny", etc.  Note that when film was released the soundtrack could be found under Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

The Long Riders,  Ry Cooder,  Walter Hill,1980 QT

Source song (North - changed to Southern song..)

O Lucky Man,  1973, Alan Price, Lindsay Anderson DVD

Brechtian approach:  tape 2 McDowell walks into the studio, tape 1 Alan P. in the studio - no connection other than a  comment on the story

Cat Ballou, Elliot Silverstein, 1965

Brechtian Interlocutors

McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Leonard Cohen, Robert Altman, 1971 DVD

Interlocutor is off screen (Leonard Cohen). Songs are almost Brectian as they comment on the action.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?, T. Bone Burnett, Coen brothers, 2000

Music both source and arising from story space.

Lip Sync & Other Strangeness

Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jon Brion/Aimee Mann (songs) 2000 DVD

Characters in drama lip sync to same song in different locations.

Blue Velvet, Angelo Badalamente, David Lynch, 1986 DVD

Dean Stockwell lip-syncs to the sandman song - dark,

Source music as setting of scene and then as distracting (to characters).

  Songs (Soundtrack)

Say Anything, Cameron Crowe, m Ann Dudely, 1989

Iconic scene with “boom box” playing Peter Gabriel. Teen angst.

GoodFellas, Martin Scorcese, 1990 DVD

Song follows them into the nightclub. All of the film is scored by needle-drop.

BlackHawk Down, Ridley Scott, Hans Zimmer, 2001 DVD

Use of Voodo Child (Stevie Ray Vaughn/Hendrix homage)

 

Homicide, The Pretenders, 1994 Season QT

montage of scenes at the end of the episode

Top Gun, Tony Scott, 1986 DVD

Vehicle for songs, recruitment for Air Force, etc…

Pirate Radio, d. Richard Curtis, various, 2009, DVD

Music arises naturally from radio broadcasts…

Philadelphia, Howard Shore, Jonathan Demme, 2000 DVD

Commissioned song as setting up story, opera as character definition.

 

Black Hawk Down: Voodo Child, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimmy Hendrix

Se7en, Opening “song” by 9” Nails (Trent Reznor)