Favourite sound moments in film

jpeatt · Post by **jpeatt** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 4:07 am

What are people's favourite sound moments in movies. Could be anything at all, the soundtrack, sound design, even dialogue.

A couple of my own to begin with;

The train sequence when heading to 'the zone' in Tarkovsky's "Stalker". Also the first appearence of music on the soundtrack when the stalker heads off for a private moment with the zone immediately after their arrival.

The opening scene of Bela Tarr's "Damnation", watching the cable cars through the window, and also the scene in the bar where no one speaks, and the camera slowly moves round with lethargic, repetitive accordion music being played.

The scene in the first "Rocky" film where Rocky returns home after a small time bout, puts a scratchy old soul 45 instrumental on and starts practicing his punches, making a kind of "ooosh" sound under his breath. While doing this, he also practices what he's going to say to Adrienne at the pet store the next day, muttering about "flies in the turtle food".

And the first half of "The Conversation".

dave quam · Post by **dave quam** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 4:47 am

oh a good thread.

The part in the battle of algiers when the teenages are dancing in that place to that funky music and then the building blows up.

lots of moments in herzog movies but the ones that come to mind are the parts in stroszek when that weird old hollering tune is played (what is this song? its awsome i think its an edison recording?)

The bar scenes in chungking express with the dennis brown song

There are a bunch of parts in the mirror that are rad.

faster · Post by **faster** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 4:51 am

Dueling banjos

Shivering Manatee · Post by **Shivering Manatee** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 7:22 am

I second the train in Stalker, and the incredible old-drunk-men-acting-out-the-movement-of-the-heavenly-bodies scene in Damnation (managed to get a CD of music from Tarrs films, yummy).

Also all the telephone exchange noises all the way through The Conversation, adding to the paranoia.

The scene near the beginning of House Of Flying Daggers with the drums,dancing and pebbles, because it sounds amazing in surround-sound.

Too many bits of sound in Lynch movies to list, though none of them from Inland Empire.

And my least favourite bit of film sound ever : the awfull,jarring,inappropriate Jean Luc Ponty jazz score on one of the versions of Haxan.

user_5123 · Post by **user_5123** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:11 pm

dave quam wrote:The part in the battle of algiers when the teenages are dancing in that place to that funky music and then the building blows up.

YES.
one of my favorite scenes in any movie ever
it's bone-chilling

another Herzog moment - in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, when the retarded man plays that piece on the piano

and in American Psycho, when he does the moonwalk to "Hip to Be Square" and later, when he gives the monologue to the prostitutes about Phil Collins/Genesis

user_548 · Post by **user_548** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 10:03 pm

The "bells" in Satantango. Especially at the end.

user_5099 · Post by **user_5099** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:29 pm

angrymice wrote:The "bells" in Satantango. Especially at the end.

Why, cuz then it's over??? j/k...

In Breathless where Jean Pierre is driving you can hear two sounds that occur in his mind, which Godard masterfully does with the audio. You can hear a siren when there's no police car, and when he's pointing the gun out of the window, you hear a gunshot and some glass breaking, but in reality, does this actually happen? the viewer is left to ponder this for a second and think about it and hopefully realize that it's an audio trick that Godard has masterfully inputed into the scene.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5XMy_5UIonI

user_10 · Post by **user_10** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:41 pm

Just rewatched "Once Upon a Time in the West" which has too many examples to count.

Favorites include the creaking of the windmill in the opening sequence, all the instances of Claudia Cardinale's theme (by Morricone, of course --somehow the combination of that piece with all the images of town's being built by swarms of workers never fails to bring tears to my eyes), and lastly, at the very end when Jason Robards is telling Claudia to give the men working a drink and the plodding theme music cuts off for a second for him to tell her they've earned "patting her on the behind."

Dan Warburton · Post by **Dan Warburton** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:17 am

The dining room door in Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot
The opening scene of The Conversation in Union Square (there was a great piece on this film in The Wire a few years ago by Philip Brophy
The elevator in Eraserhead (actually, anything in Eraserhead)
others too numerous to mention!

Dan Warburton · Post by **Dan Warburton** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:39 am

http://www.philipbrophy.com/projects/sc ... Noise.html" onclick= "window.open(this.href);return false;

Gaendaal · Post by **Gaendaal** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:55 am

The soundtrack to Soderbergh's Solaris.

When the Eye of Sauron explodes in LoTR and the cinema goes BBWWWWRRRRRR.

The powerlifter's servos in Aliens.

And the absolute lack of sound just prior to Sword of Doom's main swordfight.

fearandpanic · Post by **fearandpanic** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:58 am

Gaendaal wrote:The soundtrack to Soderbergh's Solaris.

There's excellent, effective sound design in Tarkovsky's original.

Gaendaal · Post by **Gaendaal** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:09 am

fearandpanic wrote:
Gaendaal wrote:The soundtrack to Soderbergh's Solaris.
There's excellent, effective sound design in Tarkovsky's original.

Aye, and I'm not saying there isn't, I just like the Cliff Martinez soundtrack as music in its own right.

Shivering Manatee · Post by **Shivering Manatee** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 8:24 am

Gaendaal wrote:
fearandpanic wrote:
Gaendaal wrote:The soundtrack to Soderbergh's Solaris.
There's excellent, effective sound design in Tarkovsky's original.
Aye, and I'm not saying there isn't, I just like the Cliff Martinez soundtrack as music in its own right.

I love that Martinez soundtrack, and bought it as soon as I'd seen the movie. But the sound DESIGN on the original Tarkovsky fillum is far superior, due to the usual Tarkovskian attention to detail.

surfer · Post by **surfer** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:24 pm

Trevor Duncan's music at the beginning of the english version of La Jetee.

Also Michel Legrand's music at the beginning of each chapter of Vivre Sa Vie.

surfer · Post by **surfer** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 7:32 pm

Zbignew Preisner's music to Blue, especially the moments when Binoche blacks out, accompanied by the strong surge of orchestral music.

jpeatt · Post by **jpeatt** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:08 am

Just thought of another couple myself.....

The muffling of the sound for a good portion of 'Come and See', after a bomb explodes near the protagonist.

The entirety of Amir Naderi's 'Marathon' (I don't know how I managed to forget this 1st go around), in which the main charcter does lots of crosswords. In loud public places in New York. Really amazing film, highly recommended in all aspects.

Oh. and Godzilla

Gaendaal · Post by **Gaendaal** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:53 am

It's not high-brow in any way but the sound a TIE fighter makes still brings a nostalgic smile to my face.

free math · Post by **free math** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 3:23 pm

oh come on, what's more high-brow than SPACE OPERA??

surfer · Post by **surfer** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 3:27 pm

I agree with the others on here who have mentioned Battle of Algiers. Off the top of my head, I cant think of another movie I've seen that has made a more effective and indispensible use of music.