MLT Club Member Jürgen
MLT Club MemberForum Replies Created
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Hi Jung, the music industry is teeming with heroes, anti-heroes and tragic figures. And yet, as much as I love music and music has influenced me a lot, musicians have played only a subordinate role as ideal or heroes for me. My real idols are novelists, or rather the books they’ve written. Together with Jules Verne I dived 20000 miles under the seas and he awakened in me the desire to travel to distant countries and discover other cultures. H.G. Wells fascinated me: his belief in the many possibilities and the fantastic achievements that we humans may one day have. I enthusiastically accompanied Stanislaw Lem on his exploration trip to the stars, where we humans are traveling in search of ourselves in distant galaxies and Douglas Adams almost explained the meaning of life to me.
If music is the keeper of our feelings and our passion, then literature is the gateway to our minds and our knowledge (maybe I’m wrong and it’s exactly the other way around?) Together they are definitely unbeatable. As for example in Alan Parson’s Projects concept albums “I Robot” and “Tales Of Mystery And Imagination”
„Music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is poetry;
music, without the idea, is simply music;
the idea, without the music, is prose, from its very definitivness.“
– Edgar Allan Poe –
And David: I followed Carl Sagan and his miniseries Cosmos on TV with excitement at the time. Stephen Hawking’s ideas have also always fascinated me (even if I only understood a fraction of what he had to report)
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Another musical classic that should not be missing in this topic: “The Wizard of Oz”. I saw the film for the first time as a child and this song has accompanied me almost all my life. Always beautiful and enchanting.
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Yes Jung this version of “Somewhere over the rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo is just wonderful. It awakens in me feelings of wanderlust. White endless beaches, Palm fronds that swing gently in the wind and the wide of the South Sea where the setting sun is reflected in warm yellow and orange tones. I had already thought that this was film music. But I didn’t know which film the music belonged to, thank you. I could also imagine Mona and Lisa reinterpreting this song in a wonderful way.
“For your Eyes only” is also a great James Bond title. Yes, probably the most soulful title.
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Hi Jacki, thanks for reply. Yes, that fits well. I think there are so many wonderful, exciting, impressive and captivating movies, but also series that have been shown on TV at some point, they all have no place here. What a pity.
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Planetary Science? I imagine this to be very exciting (or sometimes very theoretical?). Too bad that this is “only” a music forum. I would have a lot of questions for you. I like to watch science documentaries in which astrophysicists present their latest findings (i.e. popular science. Comprehensibly stated theories without formulas and calculations. So in the manner of Carl Sagan). Exciting and interesting, even if sometimes very detached.
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These are the moments in life that are priceless, David. I imagine it this way: I go to the bakery to buy rolls and suddenly Ringo Starr is standing next to me and does not know which bread to take. Too bad Carl Sagan didn’t notice you. What would you have said or asked him? (Without getting too personal now: Did you study astrophysics or something similar?) Sometimes such encounters can also be disillusioning. A few years ago I was at a reading of a fantasy author whose books I actually liked to read. It was a small, rather intimate round and I have to say: I was very disappointed with the author. A boring, inconspicuous guy. I wouldn’t have wanted to talk to him. Unfortunately not a hero. Maybe it was even better that you didn’t talk to Carl Sagan: So he has remained in your memory as you liked to see him.
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Yes David, you are right. Now that I see the scene again (after many years), I remember. At this point in the plot, evil has not only a face, but also a bicycle. In the film, the scene really seemed very threatening. Most of the other passages in the film seem cheerful and spread a carefree, optimistic mood. But this changes very quickly, because the evil witch of the West appears to avenge her slain sister. The poison-green appearance, but also the flying monkeys that are supposed to capture the companions, seem very threatening. A really well-made mood picture in the film. Cheerful, exuberant mood suddenly becomes something very threatening and deadly.
I also find the characters original: The lion without courage, the iron man without a heart and the scarecrow without a mind. All three have had the properties for a long time, but have yet to find out. That’s how we humans often feel in life. We have many good qualities or abilities that we don’t know about, but we only have to find out in the course of life that we already own them.
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Placement number 1: Jerrald “Jerry” King Goldsmith. He was born February 10, 1929 in Los Angeles / California. Jerry Goldsmith made it to the first place of the ten most important film composers of all time very closely, but well deservedly. The American has composed more than 200 works. His most famous work is the music for the first feature film of “Star Trek”, which was later also used for the successful series “The Next Generation”. He was nominated for an Oscar 17 times, but received the award only once – in 1977 for the composition of the film “The Omen”. Goldsmith created romantic-melancholic music for “Chinatown” and “The Russia House”, dark and at the same time gentle scores such as “Alien” and “Poltergeist” and experimental-minimalist works such as “Planet of the Apes”. Other well-known settings: “Freud”, “Total Recall”, “Basic Instinct”, “Air Force One” and “L.A. Confidential”.
Would you have made the placement like this or are you even missing important film composers who are particularly important to you and were not listed here?
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Yes “The Shining” is a masterpiece. Disturbing, unsettling and very good. Just like Jack Nicholson. One of the best Stephen King film adaptations.
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Number 2: Ennio Morricone. He was born November 10, 1928 in Rome. Morricone was an Italian composer who also published works under the pseudonyms Dan Savio and Leo Nichols. He composed the music for more than 500 films, became world famous mainly through his collaboration with Sergio Leone – including “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, “Once Upon a Time in the West” and “Once Upon a Time in America”. Also outstanding are his sensationally melancholic works on “Mission” and “Cinema Paradiso”, legendary also the setting of “The Untouchables” with Kevin Costner and Sean Connery. In 2007 Morricone received an Oscar for his life’s work, in 2016 for the compositions for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight”.
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Hi Jung, you surprise me again and again: what exactly is a twangy Banjitar? Does it have more sides than a banjo or another sound body? And besides, you also seem to be able to read minds. While searching for versions of “While my Guitar geently weeps“, I came across the video below. „Too bad, so originally presented“, I thought, „but unfortunately that does not fit at all into the topic of film music“. And now you open the appropriate topic. This is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. 🙂 So here is another version of the great Beatles title:
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Hi Jackie, thanks for your posting. Well, looks like we have almost the same taste in film. Of the Star Wars movies, I also like the three parts shot first the best. The prequels are visually impressive, but the plot is rather mediocre and doesn’t exude the charm of the early StarWars movies. The only exception is the part “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”. I saw it recently and I liked it. Waynes World was also funny. Totally crazy, but good. Of course, Star Trek and Lord of the Rings are also among my favorites (I devoured the books twice. For a third time I couldn’t get up and luckily there is now the film trilogy) What do you think of Avatar, The Fifth Element, Indiana Jones and The Mummy trilogy? Yeah, there are so damn many, good movies. Also fine that you mention Mama Mia, (we always watch the movie on New Year’s Eve), wait I have an idea….
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James Bond film music. Almost a topic in its own right. Thank you Diana for inserting “The World is not enough” by the band Garbage (the song sounds great) and “Live and Let Die” by the Wings. Some of the James Bond films are forgotten almost as quickly as you watched them. But there are also some outstanding films in this series. And you’re right, the music for the James Bond movies is usually very good. “Live and Let Die” actually dances a bit out of line, because the song doesn’t really sound like James Bond music. But it is also a very nice song (a typical Paul Mc Cartney song). My favorite Bond Theme doesn’t sound particularly like James Bond either, but I think it’s one of Duran Duran’s best songs.
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Jung, you’re so right. I know this phenomenon. Even a boring supermarket or the underwear department of a department store suddenly looks exciting and cheerful with the right music.
You described it in a very poetic and literary way, which I like very much. I sometimes think of things more technically and analytically, but basically we both mean the same thing: Music usually immediately activates consciously or unconsciously memory patterns and associated emotions in our brain. As soon as music sounds, the entire experience changes. In the brain, certain neurotransmitters are expelled and these then play on the score of your emotional life. Works a bit like a drug, but is much healthier, legal and has no known side effects. (So from a neurophysiological point of view). You feel dynamic or relaxed, become happy or sentimental, feel euphoric or anxious. It is not for nothing that there are music therapists who use these mechanisms. (I have to admit without envy your description of the phenomenon Music -The Power of Music- is clearly more pleasing and beautiful. Shakespeare would have bowed to you, he would have only looked at me with a raised eyebrow 🙂 )
As you have already described it very nicely, the key to many exciting films lies in the music. Watch a horror movie and turn off the sound. Suddenly, the whole plot seems strange, surreal and sometimes even disjointed and the immersion is lost. Even the dialogues in some films seem „wooden“ without film sound and you immediately notice the difference between talented actors and those who would like to be. The good actors have a strong non-verbal expression, such as facial expressions and gestures, and can also convey emotions without sound. Bad actors seem very uninvolved without sound and show hardly any emotions. Her acting seems flat and awkward. you ask yourself: what are the actors actually doing there? Funny fact, it gets really exciting when the auditory input does not match to the visual image shown at all. Some Film-Producer deliberately use this technique to make the viewer laugh, even irritate him or creat fear.
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Hello Diana,
welcome to the party. Very nice that you join us again. Sundance Film Festival, that sounds very interesting. Where exactly does this take place? I also like indipendent films sometimes very much and I think they are an important part of film culture. They form a significant counterpart to the dominant Hollywood productions. We also have a few small so-called “arthouse cinemas” here with us who liked to show Indi films. For example, the productions of French, German or Finnish film producers, such as Aki Kaurismäki, away from the big mainstream cinema. This kind of cinema were small, cozy Movie Theaters with a nice old-fashioned ambience. Unfortunately, these hardly exist anymore after the big cinema chains (or centers) have spread. In my native town of Oberhausen, the International Short Film Festival takes place every year. There, up-and-coming, innovative but rather unknown artists were able to present their works. The festival attracted international attention and the film offer was accordingly diverse.
The song “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” sounds dreamlike beautiful. I like it very much. Thanks.
