I'm a huge Ennio Morricone fan, and the other day at Value Village I found a cassette of his soundtrack for The Mission. Listening to it has revealed an oddly post-rock sensibility: all pieces lack chorus, at most finding a focal point at a theme which is altered and developed throroughly, and each track seemingly building towards an epiphany. The music was truly cinematic; in fact, the movie, which I only vaguely recalled, seemed to play out mentally along with the music.
When I watched Stranger Than Fiction about a month back, the soundtrack - essentially a bunch of reworked and remixed Spoon tracks - really struck me as not only enhancing the film, but as a really great set of tunes that was well-deployed throughout the picture, stuff I'd listen to outside of the film's context.
Last night, watching Punch-Drunk Love, I realized that Jon Brion's score - designed, seemingly, to frustrate, aggravate and confound the viewer and listener - was similarly enhancing to the film in its own right, but in addition it was absolutely fascinating music, in some scenes reminiscent of an arthouse Stomp and in others seemingly echoing Stravinsky.
I guess what I'm saying is, what are your favourite film soundtracks or scores and why? Those are three of mine, and I really like the way that each one works. I'm a bigger fan of Morricone's sountracks for the Man With No Name trilogy, but that aside, I think those three are some dead-on brilliant soundtracks.
