I went to film school + once had someone tell me that I “thought life was a movie.”  It was supposed to be an insult, but, really what’s wrong with that?  I knew I would never move to Los Angeles and work in the film industry despite professional mentors urging me to do so early in my career, but I loved movies + wanted to study them.

The truth is, life used to be a lot more like a movie.  Movies used to be more like movies.  One absent aspect of films that I often lament is the director’s (or studio’s or distributor’s) choice to forgo the cost/involvement associated with scoring the film and instead include popular music – with lyrics, nonetheless!  I’m not a purest in all cases but I’ve seen so many films in the past few years – more often than not – near RUINED by the lack of a film score.

A few things have happened recently to lift my spirits on this front.  The new Girl With the Dragon Tattoo “soundtrack” (it’s a score…) came out.  I love Trent Reznor so it’s no shock to me that he would do a great job with this score.  Is it the kind of thing you’ll want to jam out to at home?  Probably not.  But it’s completely appropriate for this story (which, btw, I don’t believe needs to be remade given the Swedish versions that came out over the last few years were quite good).

Second, I heard a new artist today that, while not scoring a film, has an intensely cinematic quality to her music.

I don’t know much about her – though from limited research it seems like she’s gotten some solid attention in the last year from alt-pubs + a few in the UK shouting praise – other than her name is Lana Del Rey and I can’t wait to hear more from her.