Thursday, 25 November 2010

The Rise & Fall of Musical Interest

As you know, if you know me, which you don’t (well not really) I’ve never really been enthused over music. I’ve always been the guy that sits and laughs at the cliche of people posting song lyrics as their Facebook status, or announcing that something is “the soundtrack to my life” because that’s pretty much rubbish mostly just used so people will think they’re interesting. I say this now because, recently, I’ve been getting into music more and more, on a deeper level at least. Before, I would always have music blaring out of my PC whenever I was working, or playing, or writing or, just sitting. I have 4298 songs on my iTunes. But before I would never really be listening intently, I just used it as noise for the background. Sure one or two songs would catch my ear and I’d eventually be singing along, but I never really listened to the lyrics I was actually singing. Never really soaked them up at all. Which is why movie scores are so much better. Sure they may not be as catchy as some pop music, and they may not be created by some hot emo girl with pink hair and the ability to jump really high in the air whilst singing, but it’s this type of music that really makes you feel

The music, when used in the movie, usually simmers into the background, creating a tone but never really being prominent enough to spark the audience’s attention, unless it’s something as distinct at the ‘Inception’ horns, blaring across the screen or something as iconic as the ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ trumpets, ushering in a new era of cinema. When bought alone, and listened to with a watchful ear, you can however, really pick up on the emotional angsts of the film or the up-beat action. The scores really allow you to hone in on what it is that makes you feel compassion, or lust, or anger (etc) at the characters and what builds the tension up, deep inside your veins until it fizzles out. A primary example lies within the score to ‘Inception’ by Hans Zimmer. Within the movie, it’s fantastic, but alone, with noise canceling headphones and a clear tone it’s even better. From the slow build up of ‘Half Remembered Dream’ to the action-packed fast-paced extravaganza that is ‘Mombasa’ and ending with the truly hauntingly epic ‘Time’, it really grabs you emotionally. In particular, ‘Time’ really drew me into the message of the film, the emotional tone of the dominant character’s story and his impact on the events. It builds beautifully, slowly growing and growing until it blooms into an epic and vengeful barrage of horns and drums, eventually sliding back down to an emotional finish. It was almost impossible to halt my brain from imagining the little metal spinning top circling it’s final resting place as the music dies and collapses in on itself, like a dream, leaving only the lasting impressions of the dazzling strings to disturb your mind into a frenzy of logic and astonishment. Then as it does inevitably end, I found my eyes snapping open at the final twist of sound, leaving the feeling of awaking from an intense and meaningful dream. Pure excellence. 

Another notable score being Clint Mansell’s score for Duncan Jones‘ ‘Moon’. It’s quite repetitive (but most scores are) and lacks the imaginative twist of Hans Zimmer’s work, but ‘Welcome To Lunar Industries’ provides a fantastic up-beat, and at times, depressingly memorable tone to the beginning and the end. John Murphy has always been a favourite of mine too, his utterly astonishing ‘Adagio in D Minor’ for Danny Boyle’s ‘Sunshine’ has always blown me away, as has his creepy, yet oddly perfect piece for ’28 Days Later’, another Boyle film. ‘In the House in a Heartbeat’ is by-far my favourite horror influenced score of all time. Then, in 2010, when he repeated said epics with an electrical twinge for the score for ‘Kick-Ass’ it truly was a dream come true. However, the ‘Kick-Ass’ score works best within the movie, and on it’s own, can drag a little. ‘Strobe’ is the hidden musical gem of the most astounding action scene ever created. 

Right, music rant over, I’ll go back to films next time, I promise. 

Tuesday, 9 November 2010

Bibular

I’m not sure what it is, or what I feel, but some ‘things’ (for lack of a better term) feel almost bibular. Bibular being a new word, just invented by yours truly, derived from the word ‘Bible’ which many people follow their lives from. Bibular is used to describe ‘things’ which you get influence from, which help you along in the trials and tribulations of the big wide world, which become the foundations of life itself. Well, for you anyway. I mention said word due to the fact just minutes, maybe seconds ago (however long it takes to power up a Macbook) I finished watching ‘(500) Days of Summer’, one of my favourite movies and also something I propose to be bibular. Off the top of my head I can think of two other movies, ‘Juno’ and ‘High Fidelity’ (why, of course) which too fall into this category. Basically making up my movie bible. There’s something about the character of Tom Hansen which makes him not only like-able, but live-able too. By which I mean, you want to be him. His likeness to the character of Ted Moseby from ‘How I Met Your Mother’ often baffles me (except maybe on the age front) but I’m not sure whether it’s his laid back, yet slightly smart dress sense, or architecture driven brain, or amazing taste in women which draws me so close to his personality. As I watch said movie I feel like I’m living his reality, like everything is constantly turned round and round and upside down, like a washing-machine. Beliefs are rooted to an idea, and an idea is usually rooted from something with influence. For me, the influence is movies. Since I saw ‘High Fidelity’ I’ve always wanted that slacker-style “I’ll do what I want’ type lifestyle. And one of those awesome old fashioned style telephones. But that’s not the point. The point IS that my beliefs stem from these 3 movies, thus making them bibular, thus meaning I live my life from movies. It’s very rare for me to find a movie which I feel connected enough to that I start wanting to be a part of, so when I find one, it’s the most precious thing in the world. A lot of people grab thoughts (mainly quotes) from books (mainly the Bible) to live their life by, so I see no reason why you can’t do the same from movies, it’s just a video based form of fictional story-telling instead of word-based.

There’s only one bone to pick, which isn’t even a bone because it’s fiction and fiction isn’t a perfect re-telling of life, because if it was, these ‘heros’ wouldn’t be heros, they would be whiney nut-sacks which everyone found depressing and dull. Said bone is of course, Tom’s ability to woo Summer into spending roughly 200 days as his girlfriend. It’s the same with Rob Gordon of ‘High Fidelity’ and even Ted from ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and I’ve come to the cruelly un-fulfilling but ultimately definitive answer that, it’s the city. All 3 dudes live in 3 of the greatest and most beautiful cities in the world (and the US of A) and somehow, they work the spirit of the landscapes into their advantage. The ancient cinemas, smokey bars and charming artistic underbelly of the cities’ histories makes them the most ideal and interesting places to pick up women. In my town you have a street of shops and thousands of houses, no where interesting to amuse your damsel. In the end, movies, like story books, are fictional meaning we can’t take everything from them, but there’s one dying piece of life love that still remains at the heart, and that is ambition. The ambition to truly be Tom Hansen, to be Rob Gordon, to feel what they feel, experience life like the greats. It’s the only good fight there is.