Friday Five #6

Song and Film Pairings

I don’t know about you, but for me there are certain songs that are forever attached to the movie in which they were featured. I may have heard the song before or it may have been brand new, but after experiencing the song paired with a scene in a movie, I indelibly link the two in my mind. Here are my top 5 favorite film/music pairings.

1. “On the Nature of Daylight” by Max Richter, as featured in Arrival. It is my opinion that Arrival is a vastly underrated cinematic masterpiece. It is one of my all-time favorite movies. Yes, it has aliens in it, but it is not a film about aliens. It is about the nature of time, the value of life, and how we make meaning out of hard realities. I realize that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it should be! I cry every time I watch it. The way that “On the Nature of Daylight” is used in this film is perfect.

2. “It Never Entered My Mind” by Miles Davis, as featured in Runaway Bride. I don’t even know how Miles Davis would feel about his hauntingly beautiful jazz piece being used in a rom-com, but it just really works. I went through a jazz phase in college back when I thought such a thing made me cool and edgy (2 words which, it turns out, never are used to describe me), and Miles Davis was a favorite of mine. I also really loved this movie, so having the two of them together made me so happy.

3. “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” by Bach, as featured in Fantasia. For some reason, this film aired in theaters when I was a kid even though it was released in 1940. My dad took me to see it, and I’m pretty sure I fell asleep at some point, but this opening musical sequence stuck with me. I later was captivated by the whole film and watched it many times over the years. I credit my dad with exposing me to lots of different music when I was growing up.

4. “Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy, as featured in Ocean’s Eleven. I had heard “Clair de Lune” many times before this film, but I never really paid attention to it the way that I did when it was played at the end of Ocean’s Eleven when all of the group (minus George Clooney) is standing at the fountain outside the Bellagio.

5. “Let Go” by Frou Frou, as featured in Garden State. Garden State was a very quirky movie that I didn’t love when I saw it, but I did love its soundtrack and listened to it ad nauseum for years. The soundtrack introduced me to several artists I had previously never heard, including The Shins and Iron & Wine and Nick Drake. I will always associate “Let Go” in particular with this movie because it plays over a very powerful scene. I’m curious to see how the movie holds up; I haven’t seen it since I was in graduate school in 2005.

   As I look back on this list, it’s interesting that with the exception of Arrival, all my other picks are from films that I watched when I was much younger. There is something incredibly endearing about music and films I experienced in my formative years.

   Now tell me: what songs do you associate with certain films? Do you have a soundtrack you love?