Surprised no one mentioned Ennio Morricone
-
WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
Movie directors with a sonic signature
- Thread starter jsilvela
- Start date
They were a great band for a while, humour never far away, their dancing was not so good.
- Thread Starter
- #63
Morricone, never forgotten.
The question though was about directors with distinctive sound, not necessarily about great music scores.
Once upon a time in the West was mentioned in this thread. Great Morricone score.
I'll mention another brilliant Morricone soundtrack, The Mission, in sort of a negative of the intent of the thread.
There goes a movie with beautiful cinematography, great actors, music to die for, and the movie manages to be completely mediocre at best.
Great album though.
- Thread Starter
- #64
These are new to me. Will check them out. Thanks!
- Thread Starter
- #65
I had missed Fellini. Amarcord too!
This made me think of Jacques Tati. Mon Oncle would be recognizable just from the soundtrack.
- Thread Starter
- #67
And, also, Bill Forsyth's Local Hero.
I run out of words on this one. I mean, getting Mark Knopfler to do the music, it being an album worth listening to on its own, but not letting the music overwhelm the movie.
IMO one of the top marriages of music + movie ever.
And very thought out sound in general.
I run out of words on this one. I mean, getting Mark Knopfler to do the music, it being an album worth listening to on its own, but not letting the music overwhelm the movie.
IMO one of the top marriages of music + movie ever.
And very thought out sound in general.
Rivette is the most interesting (IMO) of the original Nouvelle Vague auteurs: Godard, Chabrol & Rohmer. Although they can all be good on occasion. But Rivette's films are another acquired taste. They are often (very) long, slow with obscure indecipherable plots, little action, and sometimes largely improvised.
Zgrado1970
Member
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2021
- Messages
- 25
- Likes
- 46
Fun thread - I have added some items to my watch list!
Someone above mentioned David Lynch, without naming Angelo Badalamenti. IMO Lynch’s films are not the same without the atmospheric Badalamenti scores. Also Lynch gave Badalamenti an all-time weird cameo in Mulholland Drive. Someone else mentioned John Carpenter. I will give a plug to his recorded synth music (soundtracks, plus Lost Themes 1 and 2).
Reading the thread made me think of great shots/scenes/sequences using recorded music. I am not talking about the montage where our protagonist prepares for the big event over any random pop song (I’m looking at you Rocky 3) - that is film cliche, but rather a conscious use of sound and image by the filmmaker. I thought of the village attack sequence in Apocalypse Now (who knew Ride of the Valkyries was the soundtrack to American Imperialism?), or 2 sequences from Goodfellas - Henry and Karen walking into the Copa accompanied by the Wall of Sound, and Nilsson’s Jump Into the Fire perfectly illustrating Henry’s cocaine paranoia.
Someone above mentioned David Lynch, without naming Angelo Badalamenti. IMO Lynch’s films are not the same without the atmospheric Badalamenti scores. Also Lynch gave Badalamenti an all-time weird cameo in Mulholland Drive. Someone else mentioned John Carpenter. I will give a plug to his recorded synth music (soundtracks, plus Lost Themes 1 and 2).
Reading the thread made me think of great shots/scenes/sequences using recorded music. I am not talking about the montage where our protagonist prepares for the big event over any random pop song (I’m looking at you Rocky 3) - that is film cliche, but rather a conscious use of sound and image by the filmmaker. I thought of the village attack sequence in Apocalypse Now (who knew Ride of the Valkyries was the soundtrack to American Imperialism?), or 2 sequences from Goodfellas - Henry and Karen walking into the Copa accompanied by the Wall of Sound, and Nilsson’s Jump Into the Fire perfectly illustrating Henry’s cocaine paranoia.
- Thread Starter
- #70
By the way, the songs by Julee Cruise in several of Lynch's films have shared composition credits by Lynch himself as well as Badalamenti.
Renaissance men.
John Carpenter definitely has a sonic universe. I did not know about his synth music!
This is a very good direction to take the thread in. Great scenes or even single movies.
I don't think there's a "Scorsese sound", but those scenes you just mentioned are truly inspired.
As well as Apocalypse Now and Wagner.
Another one is the use of Rossini in the under-appreciated gem Breaking Away.
Which inspired in me a lifelong love of Rossini.
Her Floating in the Night album is a collaboration between the 3 of them, and it's great. The twin peaks soundtrack is really good to.
A prolific Composer/Producer who has developed Scores for many films. Hans Zimmer!
en.m.wikipedia.org
Hans Zimmer discography - Wikipedia
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7526033.stm
Despite all the awards and Hollywood kudos, your most lasting composition for people of a certain age in the UK is the theme tune to Going For Gold. Are you aware of its impact?
I knew that question was coming! Going For Gold was a lot of fun. It's the sort of stuff you do when you don't have a career yet. God, I just felt so lucky because this thing paid my rent for the longest time.
I remember running into Rod Temperton once, who wrote Thriller and all those Michael Jackson tracks, and he knew all the words!
- Thread Starter
- #78
That documentary on the sound design of Apocalypse Now is fascinating. Thanks!
... and from sound designers back to the director: Francis Ford Coppola. What a towering figure.
This is kind of why I place the focus on directors: you need a person with terrific taste making sure all aspects of the movie work together, as opposed to one aspect taking over.
It may be a bit sacrilegious to say this, but I find Blade Runner, and Ridley Scott's work in general, to be an example of lack of balance. Scott generally has high quality components, (and the sound in Blade Runner is terrific no doubt,) but he does not have the taste, or perhaps the skill, to bring them into balance.
Last edited:
- Thread Starter
- #79
From Francis Ford Coppola to his daughter Sofia Coppola, who I consider to belong in the list of "directors with a sonic signature".
She has terrific taste in music, and also knows how to use silence and score with the flow of the story.
The ending of The Beguiled uses original work by Phoenix (her husband's band). They took a piece by Monteverdi and slowed it down.
And this is just ...
She's quite daring musically and otherwise.
Her Marie Antoinette got unfairly panned IMO, and then you notice Aphex Twin in the soundtrack. Bravo.
She has terrific taste in music, and also knows how to use silence and score with the flow of the story.
The ending of The Beguiled uses original work by Phoenix (her husband's band). They took a piece by Monteverdi and slowed it down.
And this is just ...
She's quite daring musically and otherwise.
Her Marie Antoinette got unfairly panned IMO, and then you notice Aphex Twin in the soundtrack. Bravo.
Since I was a child i loved to record the sound of movies on compact cassette and play it to me while imagining the picture. It later turned out that this habit was a perfect film school preparing my professional life as an editor and filmmaker. Anyway. what was tape back then is now mka files today. The app Neutron (a catastrophy when organizing playlists) can play DTS or AAC sorround tracks and also mix them down to stereo. Listened to Blade Runner the other day and it is still fascinating how seamlessy music, dialogue and sound effects do blend. Those who were around in 1979 might also remember, that the soundtrack of "Apocalypse Now" was a 2-LP Set that more or less worked like a radioplay with music and dialogue. I only remember that "The Black Hole" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" also had soundtrack versions with dialogue and larger than life sound-effects. BTW. taste in Music is not everything. Walter Murch always shows a scene from the Godfather to film students, when Michael Corleone does his first murder. No suspense musicc at all, just the screeching of the subway. But in the moment when he drops his gun, the music works almost as a relief, watch after 6:40:
Last edited: