Audrey Hepburn reading.
BEAUTY IN TROUBLE was a terrific little film made in the Czech Republic. But I had one problem with it--one I don't recall having often at other films.
It used music from a very recent movie quite extensively. And that movie, ONCE was so clearly Irish that I'm not sure how the music was appropriate for a Czech movie. I kept thinking about that when I should have been reading subtitles. Where is the connection?
But the real problem was that since the music was so new and so inappropriate to this film, it pulled me out of this movie and back into that one.
Suddenly I had images of street singers in Dublin instead of blue-collar workers in Prague.I think music in movies should be so familiar you have no trouble identifying it or so unfamiliar you don't even try. When it's like this---it's very distracting. By my count, there were four tunes from ONCE used here. What do you think? Have other films used music from a two-year old film this extensively. Why would the director choose to do this?
21 comments:
Everytime I watch Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid I am pulled out of the movie once the Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head sequence comes on. Stops the movie dead in it's tracks for me. Hate the song and it's total inappropriateness to the movie.
I think that song was new to the movie so it probably didn't have that effect of the original audience. But yes, it sounds too modern for the film--even though it's a cheery scene.
I don't often pay attention to soundtracks. Although I like the big powerful classical stuff you get in the 13th warrior and in the original Conan movie.
Movies like that can handle big booming scores. I too don't always notice the music--unless it's a bit familiar and then it can drive me crazy, trying to nail it down. Thanks god for the Internet to find these things out.
I had to look this up on the ONCE website, but I remembered watching all the special features on the DVD when I saw it the female lead and composer in the film is Czech. This is from the website:
"Born in Monravia in 1988, and a resident of Prague in the Czech Republic, Marketa Irglova is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter.
Although only 19, she has proved to be quite a talent, having already recorded an album of music with Glen Hansard while also co-starring alongside him in ONCE."
I think that's the connection.
Of course! Lisa you are so smart! I remember now she was Eastern-European but hadn't put it together. But I still advise against using music that way because it was a real diversion for me.
Absolutely! Recycling music is definitely risky.
This isn't exactly what you're talking about, but it's in the same league.
James Caan once made a movie called THE GAMBLER. The entire soundtrack was adapted from Mahler's first symphony. Maybe that didn't bother most folks, but I'm a Mahler buff. I would uo listening to the music (and wondering why Jerry Goldsmith thought it was appropriate) and can't remember a thing about the movie. Nothing. Except the score.
Same thing though. The music stole your attention. Where do I begin with Mahler? I have never quite gotten him. I feel like a peasant not to too.
(Oh Dana, The Gambler's a great film.)But music used in Tintin Quarantino and his offsprings films can drive me mad. Not because they're good or bad but because they're EVERYWHERE for months or more. I love Bernerd Hermann but Twisted Nerve seemed to be the ringtone to every mobile phone here, thanks to Kill Bill. I now use it as my alarm clock!
Right, The Gambler is a great movie. Watch it with subtitles and the sound off.
"Blister In The Sun" by Violent Femmes just ruined "Grosse Point Blank" for me after the first three times that they played it.
And living in Grosse Pointe, I found lots of other problems with the film. Like we have no radio station.
I added THE GAMBLER to my NetFlix list. Then they recommended THIEF, so I said "What the hell?" and added it to.
My queue now has 127 movies on it.
THIEF is great.The Tangerine Dream soundtrack really works for me too and I don't even like TG!
I have 168. Some of them have been at the end for three years. Both movies are good.
As mentioned in the early soundtrack discussion, the worst examples I can think of, still, would be the US release of BLACH SABBATH (the Bava anthology film), where a good movie is betrayed by the stupidly inappropriate musc, and NEIGHBORS, where a rather bad film is made intolerable by an attempt at laugh track in music.
Gosh, how do you remember Neighbors after all this time. You must be like my husband who just ruined Diner for me by telling me what people we're going to say in the next frame. Yikes.
NEIGHBORS was Just That Bad, particularly with that soundtrack. I hadn't seen 1941, so I hadn't realized at that point how bad a Belushi/Ackroyd film could be. Particularly with Cathy Moriarty along.
Speaking of SNL veterans, a few minutes viewing FLETCH on cable last night brought home how the most dated aspect of it as a film, much moreso than even Chevy Chase trying to impress us with his inherent hilariousness in the lesser scenes, is the synth-pop soundtrack...a remarkably generic one.
"Fletch" and "Beverly Hills Cop." None of Harold Faltmeyer's work has aged well.
Funny how that happens. I tried to watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles last night and it was overcome by Martin's grumpiness. I didn't see any humor in the first 40 minutes but I remembered it as funny.
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