To tell the truth, I was thoroughly annoyed by Phillip Glass' music for The Hours.
What? You were expecting something positive out of me? Fine.
I went back and listened to the music on YouTube, and found it quite enjoyable. There's nothing objectively wrong with the notes themselves. The problems don't arise until you overlay the music with the film.
While watching the film, I was very much thinking about it in the context of Mrs. Dalloway due to the intentional parallels between the film and the book. Woolf constantly delves into the thoughts of her characters, which can't be shown nearly as well in a visual medium. The music at times seemed to be trying to replace the inner dialogues of the characters and completely failing because it is hardly as precise as words. Is it supposed to be ominous? It certainly seems ominous in the film, but without the visuals the music is rather relaxing.
Additionally, Mrs. Dalloway does not seem like the kind of world that would have background music. Clarissa is too attuned to the details of the city; her background music should be carts rattling, shoes clicking, people babbling, pigeons cooing at each other, and Big Ben gonging every once in a while.
Even the whole "the music should make the viewer aware of the passage of time" deal got on my nerves... probably not what was intended when it was written. Yes, the music made me aware of the passage of time. It made me aware of just how long some portions of the movie were. Like when there would be a bit of dialogue and then
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC
some more dialogue. Instead of having awkward silences or dramatic pauses, the film ended up with moments like when you call customer services and the robot on the other end says "please hold," followed by
MUZAK MUZAK MUZAK MUZAK MUZAK MUZAK MUZAK MUZAK MUZAK MUZAK
maybe with an advertisement every once in a while, until eventually your call is answered in the order it was received.
Most of all, the constant music made it seem like there was always something going on... when there really wasn't ever much going on. We already knew that Woolf was going to commit suicide 18 years after the events of her part of the film... because we read Mrs. Dalloway, we saw Richard's suicide coming a mile away... the only part with a plot that could surprise us was the 1950s section, and how did that turn out? She's going to kill herself, says the over-dramatic music--wait, no! Just kidding! Then voila, she shows up fifty years later to explain that she abandoned her family, and that's why Richard was hallucinating and suicidal.
Okay, okay. So I'm potentially more critical of movies than I am of books. But I think that's a general trend, since New York Times book reviewers seem to be generally positive while New York Times movie reviewers are not afraid to describe films as gratuitous, confusing, or based on a screenplay with more holes than Swiss cheese.
I personally think that the music did a good job of portraying the tone of the movie without becoming overbearing. Plus, I thought it was beautiful music (think me shallow if you must, but I didn't think it sounded like Muzak). But it's ok to have different music tastes and I'm not going to rant at you for hating the soundtrack. :P
ReplyDeleteBut, out of curiosity, what kind of music DO you like to listen to? Pop? Alternative? Classical?
I don't object much to the music as music, I just object to its use in the movie. The music and dialogue seemed to be competing for attention at times, especially in the last scene when Laura is talking to Clarissa (maybe I just remember it being really annoying in that scene because we watched it twice...). I feel like it would have been better to have the scenes with plenty of dialogue lack music, and put the music in scenes where the characters aren't doing much talking. The music could even replace dialogue in some portions, like in the scene from Lone Star with the late-night gambling operation.
DeleteAs for my personal music preferences, I tend to listen to songs from musicals. I also listen to movie soundtracks from time to time, but they tend to be heavily orchestrated pieces by the likes of Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams. And when my dad and I are driving back from Wisconsin, we scour the radio waves until we find a song he recognizes as having been really popular when he was in high school.
I'm with Kathryn, I thought the music carried the story well. It got a little repetitive but also connected the three stories. The only I time I was overtly conscious of it was the car scene where Laura's driving to the hotel, just because it got so LOUD. Even though it wasn't exactly pleasant then, it definitely set the mood.
ReplyDeleteSo do you find the music in the famous shower scene from _Psycho_ to be distracting and intrusive? It's such a central part of that sequence, it would be interesting to watch it with the music muted, but the other sound effects still on. Would it be as frightening? (And would we have the same sense of underlying tension needing to be released if we didn't have Glass's score rising up under some of Laura's alone scenes? Maybe. But I can see why the filmmakers made this choice.)
ReplyDelete