Films on the Mind | Wes Anderson Edition

The Kinks | “This Time Tomorrow”
Trailer: The Darjeeling Limited trailer

As i’m sure most of you know by now, the trailer for Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited premiered in glorious quicktime a few days ago. I’ve been waiting for so long to see what this newest Wes Anderson venture would look like in motion from the many images and posters I had seen so far. It’s great to see from the trailer that the same humor, tone and choice of music still fit the style that we’ve come to expect from his films. To be honest, if I didn’t read the little caption, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what the film is actually about based off the trailer itself. Still, I’ve loved every film of his to date and this looks to be on the right track from the gorgeously detailed widescreen shots, to the two Kinks tracks (“Strangers” and “This Time Tomorrow”) used in the trailer.

That last little bit was what I wanted to delve into with this post, as we all know that Wes Anderson’s musical choices go hand-in-hand with his flair for visual detail. For most of us, it’s probably the very first thing that comes to mind when you think of any of his films as each song seems to fit perfectly and defines every scene. I also can’t forget to mention the contributions from Mark Mothersbaugh, as his scores are just as amazing and important to each film as much any individual song. It makes me wonder if I would even like each film so much if they happened to have bland musical choices.

What I wanted to do is choose some memorable music-in-scenes from each of his films like I did with my previous ‘Films on the Mind‘ post from a few months ago. I wanted to do another of those, but it’s just not in the cards at the moment. Most of these scenes showcase Anderson’s uncanny ability to bring out these emotional moments that seem to appear out of nowhere that feel like a punch to the gut in their impact. I could go on forever with all the many memorable scenes, but I decided to pick just three from each. Feel free to to discuss some of your favorite music-in-scene moment, as I would love to hear them.

The Film: Bottle Rocket
The Song: “Zorro is Back” | Oliver Onions
The Scene: This song begins shortly after Dignan (Owen Wilson), Anthony (Luke Wilson) and Bob (Robert Musgrave) just finished robbing a small bookstore, rather amusingly I might add. The scene show the three going to a fireworks stand where they proceed to drive around with Dignan shooting bottle rockets out of the window. There’s almost as child-like innocence at play while watching Dignan as the song proceeds with lyrics of “here’s to being free….”

The Film: Bottle Rocket
The Song: “Over and Done With” | The Proclaimers
The Scene: Right after Anthony ends his little fling with the maid Inez follows a great scene where this song plays over Dignan stealing a car which soon ends up breaking down on the side of the road. We’re than treated to a nice rant from Dignan about not being able to fix the car even if he had the right tools.

The Film: Bottle Rocket
The Song: “2000 Man” | The Rolling Stones
The Scene: This is the first of many instances where tracks from The Rolling Stones are used in Wes’ films. It appears during the final heist at the end of the film, which ends up going hilariously awry as Dignan sacrifices himself to save his friends.

The Film: Rushmore
The Song: “Making Time” | The Creation
The Scene: First I have to say that this is hands-down one of the best soundtracks ever. This track from The Creation is set to a very memorable montage of Max Fischer’s (Jason Schwartzman) extracurricular activities. You can see a hint of this influence in The Decemberists’ “16 Military Wives” video.

The Film: Rushmore
The Song: “A Quick One While He’s Away” | The Who
The Scene: [video] This is an excellent sequence that uses the last couple of minutes of this song from The Who. It starts off with Max acting in retaliation to discovering Herman (Bill Murray) and Miss Cross (Olivia Williams) together by letting loose a swarm of bees into Herman’s hotel room. What follows is a back and forth sequence of revenge scenes that culminates in Max getting arrested.

The Film: Rushmore
The Song: “Ooh La La” | The Faces
The Scene: [video] I don’t think a more perfect song could’ve been used to end this film. It’s a great example of a song defining a scene and in turn having it end up etched into your memory forever. “I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger” – great chorus, great film – the end.

The Film: The Royal Tenenbaums
The Song: “These Days” | Nico
The Scene: [video] This is one of those scenes that you see and you just think to yourself that this is just perfect. No dialogue is needed as the moment you see Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) slowly get off the bus and “These Days” start to play, you just can’t find a better music-in-film moment. Perfect!

The Film: The Royal Tenenbaums
The Song: “Judy is a Punk” | The Ramones
The Scene: Another great montage scene (starting to become the norm. now) where Raleigh (Bill Murray) and Richie (Luke Wilson) discover Margo’s mysterious past after hiring a private investigator. The response immediately after from Raleigh is priceless: “She smokes.”

The Film: The Royal Tenenbaums
The Song: “Needle in the Hay” | Elliott Smith
The Scene: [video] This still gives me chills everytime I watch it. It’s a very dark moment where Ritchie (Luke Wilson) attempts to committ suicide after discovering Margo’s affair with Eli (Owen Wilson). I think of this scene everytime I hear this song now, it’s just extremely unsettling.

The Film: The Life Aquatic
The Song: “Life On Mars?” | David Bowie
The Scene: This song was actually put to great use during a scene that starts in one continuous shot of Steve (Bill Murray) walking to the end of the boat after meeting Ned (Owen Wilson), who explains that he could possibly be Steve’s son. The vocals add a real emotional impact as the scene ends with Steve lighting a cigarette over a gorgeous backdrop of the city.

The Film: The Life Aquatic
The Song: “The Way I Feel Inside” | The Zombies
The Scene: A sad moment of the film as this is played during Ned’s funeral. It ends with a great shot of the casket floating to the bottom of the ocean as Eleanor (Anjelica Huston) watches out of the window of the boat. It kind of evokes this blank feeling, because I didn’t really feel attached to the characters at all. A fault that I apply to this being my least favorite of each of his films.

The Film: The Life Aquatic
The Song: “Starálfur” | Sigur Rós
The Scene: [video] Towards the very end of the film we have the entire cast inside a submarine – minus Owen Wilson who had just previously been killed – as they come across the shark that killed the partner of Steve Zissou (Bill Murray). In a very poignant moment he says “I wonder if it remembers me?” as “Staralfur” plays during this and just stands out as such a great scene in my opinion.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 5:14 am and is filed under Films, Highlights, Random, The Yellow Stereo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.