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The Best Music in Film
Jason Groves (Shynola)
(Music videos for Radiohead's Pyramid song and The Rapture's House of Jealous Lovers, among others)
- S&S: What is your favourite film soundtrack music and why do you like it so much?
- "A really difficult question. I would really have to split this into two questions: Which soundtrack is the most sympathetic to the film, and, which soundtrack would I listen to as a piece on it's own. Although it's a fairly new phenomenon that a soundtrack will have a life beyond the film it was created for, I think it's valid to judge the music this way. I certainly have soundtrack albums in my CD collection from films I didn't really like. I can't answer the first part of this question without coming across as a some sort of sci-fi nerd, but, for me, the most sympathetic soundtrack would have to be either John Williams' Star Wars or Queen's Flash Gordon (1980). Both of these soundtracks transformed what were already superbly crafted genre pieces, into unforgettable moments in my life. I only have to hear a few notes of either to be transferred to a place where thrilling adventure happens around every corner - heroes are pure and villains wear black. A place where post-modernism hasn't tainted valiant deeds and evil plots. My favourite soundtrack to listen to, independent of the movie, is Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1979) electric-classical nightmare. It's humorous but serious, moving but neutral and ridiculous but perfectly suited. A particularly inspired choice of music from a man who brought together more memorable soundtracks than most."
- S&S: In what ways does music best enhance a film?
- "Music played over film provides a context for which the visuals can be interpreted. Crudely speaking, music will either emphasise the feelings created visually or juxtapose them. The music almost becomes a filter through which you see the film. A good choice of music/sound during a scene should add another element to the film. Becoming something greater than the sum of the parts. In Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man (1995), Neil Young's improvised guitar adds a dreamlike and stream-of-consciousness quality to the film. The perfect accompaniment to a character who is slowly dying and barely aware of what is happening around him. With this music playing over his scenes Jarmusch is free to tell a simple story in a simple way, knowing that you will know how the main character is feeling without the character ever having to state it."
- S&S: What is the most effective sequence of music in your own films?
- "This is a difficult question for us. We approach the music/film choices from the opposite direction to most film makers. Our choice of music is always fixed from the start. Our visuals accompany the sound, rather than the other way around. I think that the most effective mix of music and film in our work is the video for Queens of the Stone Age 'Go With The Flow' we made last year. I look at this video in the way I look at Flash Gordon: a genre exercise, but made with love. We set out to make a video that was most definitely a 'rock' video - lightly touching on all of the clichés, but make it as visually stunning and interesting as we could. The 'story' and the music seem to be so well matched that I can't see or hear one without the other. To me they are inseparable. This is the highest compliment I would pay to a music video - and one that can only be applied to a very few in my opinion. I think we've come the closest to this ideal in our Queens video"