Favourite sound moments in film

ryan · Post by **ryan** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:58 pm

the sound effects in star wars are great, and i have a soft spot for the john williams score from those and also e.t. but probably only because they remind me of the positive memories of childhood. (it probably doesn't need to be said but the 'new' stars 'prequels' are from a galaxy far, far away from the originals)

i recently watched the shining on a projector at a friend's house. pretty much all of that movie belongs here, methinks. i also really like the sound design/soundtrack in full metal jacket and eyes wide shut. so yeah kubrick in general is usually solid.

Post by **grisha** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:09 pm

i think Kubrick's use of soundtrack (i mean music vs image) in both Dr Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket is close to perfect.

surfer · Post by **surfer** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 7:23 pm

grisha wrote:i think Kubrick's use of soundtrack (i mean music vs image) in both Dr Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket is close to perfect.

Also Ligeti + obelisk in 2001.

user_4602 · Post by **user_4602** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 9:54 pm

Lots of great ones mentioned already. Great thread.

Memorable ones for me:

Though it's a cheesy choice The Triplet's Of Bellville surprised me. It felt like pop musique concrete in the best way.

Also, Hans Werner Henze's score in The Tin Drum, probably better than Hymnen in Walkabout

user_5123 · Post by **user_5123** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:51 pm

as long as we're talking about Kubrick, The Shining needs an obvious mention

user_5273 · Post by **user_5273** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:38 pm

The scene in Wings of Desire in the bar when Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are playing & you can hear Nick Cave thinking to himself (from the angels pov) before he starts singing is pure genius...

I love the minimal score/piano by Ryuichi Sakamoto for the Japanese film Tony Takitani (a film worth tracking down on DVD if you are a fan of Haruki Muirikamis writing as its the only adaptation ever allowed)

user_5094 · Post by **user_5094** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:12 pm

grisha wrote:i think Kubrick's use of soundtrack (i mean music vs image) in both Dr Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket is close to perfect.

I think its used really well in A Clockwork Orange, too. The scene in Alex's bedroom while Beethoven's 9th, 2nd movement, is playing is one of my favourites.

fearandpanic · Post by **fearandpanic** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:44 pm

The alternation during the opening credits of a donkey braying and one of Schubert's late piano sonatas in Au Hazard Balthazar by Bresson. I don't like the film particularly other than that, but it's a good start. Sticking with classical music, Pasolini's use of Bach in a poor urban enviroment--tower blocks, council housing and slums--in his neorealist films (especially Accattone).

I like the rain a lot at the beginning of Rashomon (by Kurosawa). The singing of "La Marseillaise" is outstanding in Renoir's La Grande Illusion and The Red and the White (by Mikl?s Jansc?). Renoir's films always have fantastic music, but the integration of folk songs (recorded live on location) in Toni is especially brilliant and effective. The pounding drumming as Jesus emerges at the end of Bu?uel's and Dali's L'?ge d'Or (1930). The dislocated cow bells in the same film.

There's usually something I like about the music or sound in films I like, so that's a more or less abritrary collection of examples. If I was to really single one film out for special attention it might be the short film Listen to Britain (1942) by Humphrey Jennings. Here the music and sound of life in wartime, often captured on radio, is the theme of the film, and they're handled perfectly in their arrangement with the images. Just one of those moments where I couldn't believe my eyes and ears.

user_4602 · Post by **user_4602** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:31 pm

The scene in Autumn Sonata where the mother and daughter trade versions of the same piece might be my absolute favorite musical moment in film.

ryan · Post by **ryan** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:34 am

the club silencio scene from mulholland dr.

user_4671 · Post by **user_4671** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 5:59 pm

the 45 playing softly in the scene where the commie finds thelma ritter's character in pickup on south street, and the scratching that happens soon after.

any dramatic moment in an earlier waters film(and any song sung by divine)

Dan Warburton · Post by **Dan Warburton** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:13 am

telegramsam wrote:the 45 playing softly in the scene where the commie finds thelma ritter's character in pickup on south street, and the scratching that happens soon after.

That's a great scene. Come to think of it, any scene with Thelma Ritter is a great scene. (Didn't she get an Oscar for that film?) All About Eve and Rear Window wouldn't be the same without her.

telegramsam wrote:any dramatic moment in an earlier waters film(and any song sung by divine)

Ach, I just saw Pink Flamingos again for the first time in over 20 years last weekend and was surprised how awful it was. Not good trash (Polyester) but bad trash. Love it when the furniture starts fighting back though. Musically the only thing I remember is that godawful yacking song that accompanies the guy displaying his asshole. Oh, and a nice blast of "Riot in Cell Block #9" just before the attack on the mobile home.

Meanwhile, back to the thread. Here's a sound moment for you: the dialogue between the two Sicilian bell towers (and the traffic noise behind) in Antonioni's L'avventura. Just watched this again last night, and was struck once more by his ear as much as his eye.

frozen reeds · Post by **frozen reeds** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:37 am

Logan's Run

surfer · Post by **surfer** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:37 pm

Mott the Hoople's "All The Way From Memphis" over the opening credits to Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore.

fearandpanic · Post by **fearandpanic** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:47 pm

The use of no music (and almost no sound whatsoever) for about 45 minutes during the heist in Rififi.

user_4290 · Post by **user_4290** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:14 pm

Andrei Tarkovsky - Zerkalo

A lone character stands centre of the screen surrounded by grassland. All sound is cut for a moment whilst a wave of wind blows though the field.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder - Die dritte generation

There are plenty of great examples in this film. One that struck me most was a closeup of a character's face lasting about 10 seconds accompanied by a melody played by a small group of wind instruments.

catastrophuck · Post by **catastrophuck** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 6:23 pm

Watched Bunuel's "Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", last night and thought it might be applicable to this thread... It was completely devoid of music, which created a really haunting effect (especially at the end as the credits silently rolled) and made the sound effects very memorable and seemingly important.

The scene where the soldier relays his dream of being in the afterlife has a constant bell tolling in the background is particularly disturbing. I was also taken by the piercing "wet-fingers-on-crystal-sound" when the female assassin throws the champagne flute. Many more stand out but I'm not going to write a tome here...

My French is fairly abysmal but I think when the credits were rolling it said that Bunuel did the sound effects himself... True?

user_5340 · Post by **user_5340** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:02 pm

Two of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's films that use sounds to astounding effect: "Cure" and, obviously "Seance" (main character being sound designer for television). The attention to detail in sound of even just the opening scenes of Cure creates the atmosphere of a cramped, alienating, suffocating urban environment almost better than the images do. Place them together and the random murder in the first scene doesn't seem so random. Conveys the idea just that quickly.
More recently though, the scene in "My Name is Nobody" where Jack Boeregard meets Nobody for the second time in the Navaho cemetery("Sam Peck-in-pah, that's a beautiful name in navaho").
The music in that scene is fantasticly reminiscent of Morricone's Man with a Harmonica.(Morricone scored the music in this film as well)

MRS · Post by **MRS** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:08 pm

O'Grady wrote:Andrei Tarkovsky - Zerkalo

A lone character stands centre of the screen surrounded by grassland. All sound is cut for a moment whilst a wave of wind blows though the field.

My favorite scene from my favorite film involving my favorite actor.

jon abbey · Post by **jon abbey** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:21 pm

practical listener wrote:Two of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's films that use sounds to astounding effect: "Cure" and, obviously "Seance" (main character being sound designer for television). The attention to detail in sound of even just the opening scenes of Cure creates the atmosphere of a cramped, alienating, suffocating urban environment almost better than the images do. Place them together and the random murder in the first scene doesn't seem so random. Conveys the idea just that quickly.

FWIW, Kurosawa is buddies with Taku Unami, I think Otomo and he have worked together also on a one hour TV thing.