Writing Soundtracks, or How Film Scores Inspire Me

As a graduate student, I spend a good part of my time writing. This can get quite boring, if not outright unbearable without some good music to go with it. When I am editing I can get away with singing along to the new Adele or Frank Ocean (okay, sometimes I also bounce to Britney and Kylie). When it comes to facing the blank screen and trying to come up with dissertation-level arguments, I have to admit that I tend to stay away from songs I can sing if not outright dance along. Instead, I turn to -- what else? -- film scores. 

I bring this up because last tonight, @SeriousFilm caught my eye with the following tweet:

Best soundtrack to write to: The Fountain
— Michael Cusumano (@SeriousFilm) January 18, 2013

And, not to sound too much like Carrie Bradshaw, but this got me thinking about the type of film scores that I'm drawn to and listen to the most when I'm writing. Needless to say, a great soundtrack (take for example, Clint Mansell's Black Swan or Michael Giacchino's The Incredibles) doesn't usually make for a good writing soundtrack (unless I wanted to feel like I'm constantly paranoid and/or running away from a giant robot trying to kill me). That said, my four favorite scores to write to manage to be both fantastic scores on their own accord -- elevating and nuancing the films they belong to -- even as they make for pleasantly unobtrusive writing soundtracks. Funnily enough they all belong to films that ended up in my Top 2/3 for each of their respective years Glass's minimalist score for The Hours, Marianelli's typewriter-infused tunes for Atonement, Newman's fittingly dour ditties for Revolutionary Road and Iglesias's moody themes for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy are in constant rotation on my iTunes and Spotify (though sometimes I'm in the mood for the pulsating beats of The Social Network, for the Pan's Labyrinth lullabies and even for a Desplat or two). I don't think it's a surprise that the first two speak directly to the process of writing (Woolf with an inked-pen in hand; Robbie's infamous typewritten note) as I'm sure my mind wanders back to those scenes as I stare into the blank screen in front of me. I mean, what better way to stimulate writing than to plunge into the psyche of Smiley and his single-minded approach to his work? Or into the lovingly broken hearts of April and Frank Wheeler? Okay, maybe only the former as the latter makes me sound like a masochist. My point is that this is what great scores accomplish; they at once help construct and complement the moods and emotions we see on screen. A bad score is always distracting (be it in its contrivance or in its obvious emotional machinations), but a good score is both felt yet unseen, which is exactly what I need for when I write.

As my choices show, I'm more drawn to the quiet and restrained scores which makes sense as I don't think I know anyone who'd want Williams bombast or Zimmer horns blaring as you try to explain how fan-like adoration of cinema infected the aesthetics of twentieth century queer writers.

Of the scores this year, I have found the Russian flavored score for Anna Karenina (my pick of the Oscar five) and the intertwining tunes of Cloud Atlas have made for good writing soundtracks, but I'm curious to know if anyone has any suggestions (old or new!) as I'm always eager to discover new music that can keep me inspired and stimulated as I work my way through this dissertation.

"Come back to me!" or How it's a Brit-summer for me

Maybe it's because I studied at a British private school at home, but I do believe that the British do it differently... and by differently of course I mean better. Now to isolate what I mean by "it"... well, that would take up too much precious time. So let's leave it in ambiguity.

Back to my point: it seems as though (inadvertently of course!) I have been ensnared by stories set in or about Britain and I have to say, there is something alluring about that culture with its love affair with, well... impossible and restrained love affairs. That and a love for language and its power that I seldom encounter in American writers who go more for laconic, economic fiction/films. But enough of my wild generalizations, reviews of sort follow:

Atonement (film + book)
Yes. I had to go read McEwan's novel just to finally see for myself how McEwan's fiction created Briony Tallis (a character I fell in love with via Ms. Ronan, Ms. Garai and Ms. Redgrave - see here for my initial reaction to Wright's film). Needless to say it surpasses Wright's film (which I looove - I'm a sucker for ill-fated romantic affairs) and at times I just wanted to linger on McEwan's passages - even if I could have used less Dunkirk and more steamy library sequences.


The Remains of the Day (book + there's a film?! I had no idea... Netflixin' it now)
Ishiguro's prose; so straightforward yet so charged with insight and a level of subversive social commentary that is brought home (in all its irony!) by the unassuming narrating voice that delivers it. Oddly how as I'm writing this I realize that it makes a nice pairing with Altman's film - what with both dealing with English 'serving-class' and the (dis)advantage that that position comes with when it clashes with the personal and the social.


Gosford Park
Now, I know Altman is no Brit but Fellowes seems to have brought his Brit-cred to the screenplay (based on Altman's idea). All I need to say is: Maggie Smith! Actually, I'll just add Helen Mirren, Ryan Phillippe, Clive Owen... and oh, who am I kidding? Is this not the best assembled cast ever?! Good thing the material matches and surpasses it, if that is at all possible.



Match Point
I am very excited about Vicky Christina Barcelona even if I'm not a big fan of the title, but have found it very annoying how everyone keeps saying that it's Allen back in his A-game and see how journos everywhere have just taken Match Point as a hitch. If I ever find myself having random hitches in my career that match this steamy (and killer!) thriller, I'll count myself blessed.

The Line of Beauty (book + awaiting the Miniseries from Netflix while I finish the book...)
Now, I'm still working on Hollinghurst's novel but so far it's been a wonderful read: where else does one read steamy sex scenes involving English curly-haired boys as well as passages that linger on architectural beauty and Henry James? Exactly. Also, just like Altman and Ishiguro, Hollinghurst could easily be paired with Allen's film - social escalation, Upper English class setting... though let's hope there's no shooting Scarlett in this one.

Now, what English set or inspired novel/film should I tackle next...?

FYC, or How McEwan's tale seduces

For Your Consideration (A Blog Next Door Style) - Atonement
It's my blog and I'll FYC if I want to, FYC if I want to...

What can I say about this film that I didn't say in my review?
Well, I can stress the fact that the women in the film are fantastic and dreamy James isn't bad (or bad to look at) either. To the list of the FYC I should also add Best Costume Design, if only for Kiera's wardrobe: that green dress is beautiful and actually makes the scene in the library even sexier (albeit still classy) than it was already; and that white bathing suit actually doesn't look dated or old, but sensual and inviting (who knew?)

Check out A Blog Next Door's other FYC campaigns:
Ratatouille
Once
Superbad & Knocked Up
Hairspray
Juno

Triple Threat or How Atonement's Brionys are Brilliant!

The upcoming Joe Wright film Atonement (already screening in the UK but not set for American release til later this year) is based on Ian McEwan's novel and its literariness is not lost on screen. Dario Marianelli's score, for example keeps puncturing the film with the hard noise of a typewriter as if not wanting to let the audience forget that this is a movie, not just based on a book, but forcefully moving towards the creation of a book: Briony's novel.

Beautifully shot, Atonement never strays away from its fixation on writing - as James McAvoy's Robbie learns all too well, typing one four-letter word is enough to unravel the series of events that land him a false accusation and send him to fight in the war. Wright opens the film with one of the best first acts I have seen in film in a long time - the initial flirting between Kiera Knightley's Cecilia and Robbie is played out beautifully and climaxes in a very sensual scene in - where else? - a library. Pacing itself, the movie sets up the class distinction, the muted 'crime' and the romance in a way that the moment Briony accuses Robbie - in a moment of hesitation, revenge and bewilderment causes the movie to lose its focus for a bit. Formally of course, one can argue that the move from the estate to the trenches requires the film to lose balance and only slowly recover it.

Once we move into the war - and into a different type of writing: the epistolary form (following Robbie and Cecilia's letters) Wright's film starts meandering and as if knowing that the subject matter of the second act is lagging, he overcompensates with beautifully shot realistic scenes of the war: in particular I am thinking of the long take that follows McAvoy as he surveys the armed camp at Dunkirk as the soldiers of the Allied forces await their leave. Expertly crafted and reminding me of the choreographed shots in last year's Children of Men, Wright's take situates us spatially and emotionally in the grime of a world that was the war. And yet, I did not enjoy this part mainly because the film loses its main attraction for most of the war-centered plot: Briony.
It is not until we get the dubious re-encounter and the concluding narration that the movie returns to its original beat and builds to what is (for those of us who hadn't read McEwan's novel) arguably an unexpected ending that, wisely so, returns to writing to expose its centrality to the film.
Briony is by far McEwan's most interesting character in Atonement, and in the hands of Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave it becomes the keystone of the film: McAvoy and Knightley might be the selling point of the film (and the advertising campaign has definitely capitalised on their A-star status) and indeed the romance will be the aspect of the film most audience-members will cling to, but it is Briony who captured my attention. This is not to say that Knightley (better in this than in anything I had seen her before) and McAvoy (sizzling and talented as always) don't carry the film, but it is in the complex vision of the world of Briony that the film carries its force: from the childish (mis)understanding, to the nursing grief and all the way into retrospective guilt, Ronan, Garai and Redgrave create at once a cruel child, a numb nurse and a broken (though equally strong) woman.
Briony - maybe because she is the ultimate writer of the piece is the character that really made me fall in love with this movie. And in a film that configures itself as the living, breathing testament of her 'atonement' I strongly believe that not sympathizing with Briony (especially after seeing Redgrave command your attention with what seems like an unrehearsed monologue that showcases her strong performance) is a fault. Just for the triple threat of Briony, Wright's film is a must-see - once it opens here of course.