Wednesday, December 30, 2009

A Pair of Movie Music Moments (care of J.D.)

Over at Radiator Heaven, movie blogger J.D. today posted something wonderful for the end of the year, My Favorite Soundtracks/Score of the Decade. In it, he's mixed together a fantastic and eclectic list of music joined in cinema from the past 10 years. While we don't agree on everything (I'm a fervent enthusiast of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, and there is a lot to admire about the audacious train-wreck that is Sena's Swordfish, IMO), his choices in soundtracks is simply sublime. He included two of my all-time favorite movie-music moments on the list, too. Both are mesmerizing, IMHO. The first being Steven Soderbergh's Claire de Lune sequence from Ocean's Eleven:



... and the second, well I'll insert J.D.'s own words here for the sequence from Mulholland Drive:
... the film's sonic highlight comes when Rebekah Del Rio sings an absolutely astounding a capella version of Roy Orbison's "Crying" in Spanish. It is an emotionally powerful moment in this masterpiece of a film.



Thank you, J.D.



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4 comments:

  1. Good morning my West Coast friend,

    I remember watching Mulholland Drive the first time and thinking of how beauty and pain were combined to convey imagery that touched a range of emotions.

    The song by Rebekah Del Rio was haunting. I remember thinking as I watched Naomi Watts and Laura Herring listen to the song, Do they even understand what she is singing? But it wasn't the words, it was the emotions the song triggered that sold that scene for me.

    U

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  2. Welcome back, U. I so wholeheartedly agree with your thoughts and sentiments regarding that scene and song. I think of all of the song covers for Crying, this one to me stands out the most. And for the singer to have done it all a capella, it was astounding (as J.D. said).

    I hope the weather is treating you and yours well back east. Take care as we all crossover to the new year, my friend.

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  3. Thanks for the shout-out! I'm very honored! I probably should clarify re: SWORDFISH. Despite all of its flaws, the film is a guilty pleasure and I thought that the screenplay, at times, seemed to evoke Shane Black's tough guy prose from LETHAL WEAPON, et al. Plus, I dig Hugh Jackman and he was quite good in this film.

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  4. I see we're pretty much on the same level with Swordfish. That's a great analogy with Black's Lethal Weapon screenplay, too. Thanks, J.D.

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