Here, I'm going to point to a few examples where existing or original songs with lyrics are used in non-musical films with different effects and for different reasons. 1) Character- Thor: RagnarokIf you've seen the trailer for Thor: Ragnarok, you know about its use of Led Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song'. If you've seen the film, you know that this song crops up a couple of times, and it's used to bookend Thor's journey. Slight spoilers here maybe? We first saw 'Immigrant Song' used at the beginning of the film, in a scene where Thor, long-haired and lonely, used his strength and his hammer to single-handedly take down Surtur and his army of minions. It was awesome. After that, Thor lost his hammer, then his hair, went on a journey, and gained some teammates and awesome lightning powers. The second time we heard the song, it was a way of a) telling us that Thor was back to his former glory, and b) that he was actually better than ever. The song encouraged us to compare Thor's circumstances and skills then to the first time we saw the song, and it reinforced everything he'd lost and gained over the course of the film. 2) Romance- Dirty DancingEveryone who's seen Dirty Dancing remembers a few classic moments that have become famous in their own right. 'Nobody puts Baby in the corner.' The Lift. And the two main songs, 'Love Is Strange' (more easily remembered as the 'Lover Boy' scene) and 'The Time Of My Life'. The first song served to build up Johnny and Baby's relationship, showing them being cute and falling in love. The second song, and the lift that accompanies it, have become the defining moment of the film in the 30 years since its release. The song sums up Baby's summer: she has had the time of her life, in the most interesting, eye-opening, romantic and sexy summer she's ever had. It's another example of music relating to character. 3) Choreography & Atmosphere- Baby DriverWhat to say about Baby Driver's use of music? It's hard to say how the film uses music, really because the film is music. It's pretty much a really long, fun, action-packed narrative music video for an entire compilation album. The choreography and the perfect synchronisation of the music to the visuals- from gunshots on the beat to lyrics on screen as graffiti- help immerse us in the world, and not just any world. It's very specifically Baby's world, as we hear when the music stops, leaving us with the eerily contrasting sound of his tinnitus. The songs also guide the tone, atmosphere and emotions of the film, as with a traditional score. People other than myself have already talked more specifically about Baby Driver's soundtrack, so I won't go further. As usual, this isn't attempting to be an exhausting or authoritative list, just a few thoughts. I'd be interested to hear more.
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Blade Runner 2049 is a great film, and you should definitely go and see it. It's visually stunning, explores a lot of interesting ideas, and deftly guides the audience through the story, with a good balance of intrigue and information. If you haven't seen the original Blade Runner, though, I recommend you do that first, or you won't understand some of what 2049 has to say. That said, the sequel has a great relationship to its predecessor- it leads on from it and ties to it, but has its own story, and allows us to get involved with the new plot and characters before bringing in the old ones, almost teasing us with the mention of Deckard and the others. The old characters are relevant but not overpowering- it's not Deckard's story any more, and he is demoted to the status of supporting character (despite obviously featuring prominently in marketing)- a good thing, because it's been 30 years since the last film, and it's a new and fresh story being told for a new and fresh world. This film actually reminded me of the book that serves as Blade Runner's source material, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, even more then the original. While I thought Blade Runner focused too much on action sequences at the expense of really exploring the interesting philosophical ideas brought up by Dick's book, this film brings some of those ideas back to the forefront. It's not afraid to slow down and think. It also reflects today's society and favoured narratives, which is what I'm going to talk about now. If you haven't seen the film and don't want spoilers, stop reading, but if you don't mind spoilers, even without having seen the film I think you'll find this interesting. SPOILERS FOR BLADE RUNNER 2049 AHEAD!The first three are my top three, but other than that there's no particular order here: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle ZevinThis book centres on A.J., an isolated bookstore owner from the fictional Alice Island who ends up taking in a toddler named Maya who is mysteriously left in his shop. At the start of the novel, A.J. is dreary and has cut himself off from the world a bit after the death of his wife Nic, who had been the social face of the bookshop, but over the course of the novel (thanks to Maya and other characters) learns to open up and enjoy life again. It's a novel that celebrates books and reading; each chapter is named after a well-known novella or short story, and the delight that the characters take in reading is infectious. The turns in the plot and the personalities of the characters are really compelling. It's very emotional, too, and makes you care so much about all of the characters. Wicked by Gregory MaguireThis is the book that I usually cite as my favourite, and I think it's brilliant. It tells Maguire's imagining of the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, and was the basis for the hit musical. Though make no mistake, the book and musical are very different- I love them both, but the tone and plot of each are extremely dissimilar because of the form and the potential audience. Maguire's world-building is thoroughly impressive- his Oz is complex and layered and political and feels real, and I love the complexity of the characters and how far reaching the plot is in terms of time and place- it covers Elphaba the Witch's life from before her birth to the immediate aftermath of her death, and cleverly weaves in other well-known characters from its source material. It's definitely one for adults and mature teenagers though- I first read this book aged 15, and I think I was only just ready for it. Radio Silence by Alice OsemanOseman is an author I hugely admire. Her first novel, Solitaire, was published when she was only 19, and in the very few years since then she has published Radio Silence, written two Solitaire-character-based e-novellas and created her webcomic Heartstopper. I'm a big fan of all of her work. But I love Radio Silence in particular because of how funny and heartfelt it is. It's the most realistic novel about teenagers I've ever read, as well as the most diverse in terms of both sexuality and ethnicity, and tackles the issue of pressure on teenagers to go to university even though it may not be right for them. There's always aspects I forget about and then remember and go 'oh yeah, that was cute/funny/clever!' I highly recommend it, whether you're thinking of going to university, definitely not going, already there, or just living adult life. Oseman is incredibly talented at creating developed characters, and it's a joy to read. Little Women by Louisa May AlcottI can't remember reading this book for the first time. I think I must have been 9 or 10, but to be honest I don't know. But since then I've read it over and over again- I've read its sequels too, but nowhere near as much- and although I haven't read it in years it holds a special place in my heart because of how comforting I found it throughout my childhood. It (I'm referring to the first volume) was first published in 1868, and centres on a group of four sisters- Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth- as they deal with growing up and morality. Landline by Rainbow RowellAs with Oseman, I'm a big fan of Rainbow Rowell, and love all her books, which include Attachments and Fangirl, but if I'm pushed to choose I think Landline is my favourite (possibly because it's the most recent one I read). You can click here to read my full post on Landline. Read it if you want a book that's funny, contains just a hint of magic, explores different kinds of relationships from friendship to siblinghood, and takes a realistic look at long-term love. Jane Eyre by Charlotte BronteI read this for A Level English Literature, and since then I've come back many times to it not to fully reread, but to read my favourite chapters over again- those chapters being those featuring the relationship between Jane and Mr Rochester. I can't really explain why I love those two so much simply because it's hard to defend Rochester having read Jean Rhys' counter-novel Wide Sargasso Sea, which acts as a prequel to Jane Eyre looking at it from a critical postcolonial perspective. The truth is I think Rochester is an interesting and complex character, and Jane is more than a match for him. I've watched several adaptations of the novel, my favourites of which are the 1983 BBC miniseries with Timothy Dalton as Rochester and the webseries The Autobiography of Jane Eyre, which transports the story to modern day Canada, and poses Jane as a vlogger who is a fan of Lizzie Bennet (of the Pride and Prejudice-based webseries The Lizzie Bennet Diaries). In The Autobiography I do have a favourite episode, and it just consists of Jane and Rochester being cute with each other. Sue me, I like this couple. They're both really compelling characters. The Name of the Star by Maureen JohnsonThis is the first book in the Shades of London series, which is currently awaiting a fourth novel, and centres on Rory, an American teenager who comes to London to go to boarding school and do her A levels. As a mysterious killer emulates the murders of Jack the Ripper, she becomes caught up in the investigation after being the only person to witness the prime suspect at the scene of the crime. It's a supernatural thriller that also has a lot of humour and character development, dealing well with serious topics, and across the series the psychological impact of events on Rory isn't ignored, which is interesting. It's a clever, suspense-filled book, and I can't wait to reread the series and then devour the next book.
Have you read any of these books? If you have, what did you think? Or have I convinced you to pick them up... I'm writing this blog post for a number of reasons. One, I'm losing steam with reading a bit- I've returned to university, although term doesn't start until next week, and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with my reading list. Two, you reading this may find some recommendations in a few different genres here. Three, I want to hold myself accountable and return to this list in a couple of months, so I can finish these books before the end of the year. It's yet another reminder to myself to prioritise reading for fun, not just for my course. So let's dive in- I'm only including five books here, although I aim to read more for fun and will need to read even more for university. 1) Turtles All The Way Down by John GreenIf you're a John Green fan or even just a Young Adult Fiction fan you're probably aware of this book. Green's new novel has been highly anticipated in the five years since his last, the wildly popular The Fault In Our Stars, and it will be released into the world next Tuesday 10/10/17. It centres on teenage protagonist Aza Holmes and her search for a fugitive billionaire, as well as her obsessive compulsive disorder. This is an illness Green himself deals with, so I'm looking forward to seeing an 'own voices' portrayal of this. I'm a big fan of Green's from both his previous novels and his YouTube channel vlogbrothers which he created with his brother Hank, so I've preordered Turtles to pick up at my local Waterstones, and will be reading it in probably very few sittings over a couple of days. 2) Life Moves Pretty Fast by Hadley FreemanI've actually already started this book, but because of its nature I've been dipping in and out of it. The tagline of this book is 'The lessons we learned from eighties movies (& why we don't learn them from movies any more)', and it's structured with an introduction, an epilogue, and in between many different chapters focusing on different eighties movies and different themes, from Dirty Dancing and abortion to Ghostbusters and masculinity to Ferris Bueller's Day Off and social class. The vast majority of my favourite films were made in the eighties: Back to the Future, Ferris Bueller..., The Blues Brothers, The Princess Bride and more, with my all-time favourite film Pride and old favourite The History Boys also set in the decade. My approach to this book has been watch the film/s, read the chapter, in order, which is why it's been taking me a while. The tone of this book is delightfully enthusiastic and friendly. I'm learning to further appreciate films I already love, and I'm hopefully going to discover some great eighties classics I haven't seen and will love. 3) As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes and Joe LaydenSpeaking of eighties films I love, The Princess Bride is one of my favourite films. I recently had to 'pitch' it to a couple of friends for us to watch, and had a really hard time because it's difficult to explain why exactly it's so good without going on a massive rant. My pitch ended up being simply 'romance, sword-fights, funny', which sold them (and they loved the film.) So when I found out there was a book written by Westley himself about the making of the cult classic, I knew I had to read it. I've read that it describes an unusually harmonious filmmaking experience- whether that was the case or not remains to be seen- so I won't be basing my perception of the film industry off it too much, but I'm excited to read it. I think it'll be interesting. 4) Heart of Darkness by Joseph ConradI will hold my hands up and admit that I should have read this already. It was a text on my university course last year, but for a number of reasons (got bored, didn't see the need to finish it after the lecture, overwhelmed by reading list) only read half of it. However, it has cropped up on one of my modules this year (my favourite one) in comparison with the film based on it, Apocalypse Now. So I figured the universe was telling me I needed to give it another shot. Heart of Darkness was written in 1899, and features a frame narrative around the story of a journey up the Congo River. It's discussed a lot in terms of race and postcolonialism. 5) Save the Cat!I've just finished the first draft of my first feature-length screenplay. Now it's time to breathe and completely ignore it for a month, after which I'll go back to it and edit with a fresh mind. During this month, however, I want to learn as much as I can about the craft of screenwriting, which means reading as many screenplays as I can, reading online articles, and reading this book. Snyder knows the industry well, is a successful spec screenwriter, and focuses not just on how to make your work good but how to make it marketable. I've read a chapter and I've already learned so much! Really looking forward to this one, I've read great things about it online. Have you read any of these? Are you looking forward to Turtles All The Way Down? Let me know.
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