Music for a Film
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.