Update: This was originally posted around the same time last year, and to this day it remains one of my all-time favorites posts that i’ve done for this blog. I’ve had many requests to re-upload the mp3s, since they weren’t up for a significant amount of time – due to the site getting shut down from an overwhelming amount of traffic. I’m also putting this back up because i’m currently working on the long overdue second edition of ‘Films on the Mind’; though, i’ve currently hit a wall and figured i’d open this up to our readers. What i’m asking is if you would like to contribute to this, email me with your favorite music in film moment, and i’ll compile the best choices – along with my own – to post at some point in the upcoming weeks. If possible, a mp3 to accompany your choice would be excellent. Looking forward to hearing from you!

First off I want to say that this has been in the works (well in my head) for almost six months, but i’ve never had the time to just sit down and think about what I wanted to include. I make no secret about my love for film here on the site, as it’s almost equal to my love of music. The connection I find between films and music is simple. It’s that one scene and that one song that if they’re both put to use correctly, than it can set that mood perfectly without there even being any kind of a hint as to what’s going on. You hear a song during a scene and if it has any kind of emotional impact, well you’ll remember both for that one moment forever.

Last year found a multitude of great film soundtracks (Marie Antoinette, Little Miss Sunshine and Stranger than Fiction to name a few) released. it’s nice to have such refreshing takes from the typical movie soundtrack. I can’t stand when movies are stocked full of whatever is popular in music at that moment, as it can hamper a film. It makes it connected to that period in time, to where it doesn’t age well. But if you were to truly put some care into what kind of music you want to represent your film than it could create something that is timeless and memorable like directors Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino and Cameron Crowe films.

The following list is nowhere near anything complete or absolute, but it’s a nice representation of some memorable scenes from recent films that had some emotional impact to me. A few I can connect with on a personal level, but some as you notice are just fun scenes that stood out in my mind when I was sitting at my desk thinking throughout the entire weekend. I tried to avoid film scores as much as possible and concentrated on songs that were not based on the films themselves. Hope you enjoy these, and i’d love to make another list with choices that all of you come up with. Click the continue link to see the entire list!

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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.

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