Sound technique · used in 5 films
Giving each character, culture or place its own musical theme, and changing those themes as the story develops. The music tells you things the images and dialogue hold back.
Examples
Wes Anderson · 2001
Each Tenenbaum sibling has their own kind of music, and so does their childhood friend Eli (Margot's Nico, Richie's 70s rock, Eli's country). The song choices track the family's emotional history more precisely than any dialogue.
Where to see it: Margot's arrival at the bus station in slow motion to Nico's 'These Days'. It is the most iconic musical moment in the film.
Peter Jackson · 2003
Howard Shore's score gives the Shire, Rohan, Gondor, Mordor and the Fellowship each its own musical world. By the third film, these themes have built up enough history that combining and resolving them carries real emotional weight. The score has turned into a second story.
Where to see it: The Shire theme's final return at the Grey Havens. The music is what brings the story to rest.
Nicolas Winding Refn · 2011
The synthwave soundtrack, with songs by Kavinsky, Chromatics and College and a score by Cliff Martinez, paints the Driver's inner life as a neon romance. He never talks about longing or being alone, so the music expresses both for him. That is, the soundtrack works as character more than mood. The Driver lives inside a 1980s dream, and the film's violence keeps breaking into it.
Where to see it: The driving sequences set to Kavinsky's 'Nightcall'. The score lays the Driver's inner world over Los Angeles at night. The music is the clearest portrait of him the film gives you.
Peter Jackson · 2014
Howard Shore gives new groups their own themes, including Dain, the orc fortress of Gundabad and the dwarves' war preparations. The Gundabad theme uses a didgeridoo chorus. The music tells you who is on screen before you see their faces.
Where to see it: Battle of the Five Armies: Dwarves, elves, men and orcs clash outside the mountain until the eagles arrive.
Denis Villeneuve · 2016
Jóhann Jóhannsson's score is built around experimental textures, and Max Richter's 'On the Nature of Daylight' plays at the opening and at the close. People around the world associate that piece with grief and beauty. That placement carries the film's point. The grief and the love are the same event, lived through in opposite directions of time.
Where to see it: The opening and closing set to 'On the Nature of Daylight'. The same music starts and ends the film. Because of that circle, you hear the emotional point before a single plot event happens.
Questions
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