Once upon a time, in a previous life, I was 24 and heading on a blind internet wedding date in a city I did not live in. Pretty sure everything about that sentence spells “and then you got murdered and dumped into a river wrapped in sheer plastic” but somehow I did not think of it that way. At least not until I disembarked from my plane and was walking over to the van (yes! a van!) with an Arizona pizza delivery sign on it (side note: we were NOT in Arizona) that my blind internet date was picking me up in. Around that time I did have a brief flash of “I am going to die” thought process and definitely texted everyone I knew to call me every hour on the hour for the next 5 hours so as to make sure that I am, in fact, still breathing.
Anyway, but then I walked in and my blind internet date looked if not necessarily completely sane than at least like someone I could defend myself from somewhat and he made some decent joke about all this being crazy and then he started the car and Yan Tiersen’s score to AMELIE came on the CD player. And that was that. We dated for a year after that.
So there.
Anyway, movie credits aside- Yan is a terrific musician (read our review of his last show in DC here) and almost never comes to United States to perform and we have 3 pairs of tickets to give away to his 930 club show on Tuesday (if there ever was a perfect post-Valentine’s day activity, this is it) and to enter to win leave us a comment telling us what your favorite movie music score is. GOOOOOOO.
In the past it’s been Bernard Herrmann, but after last year it became the John Adams pieces used in I Am Love.
John Williams score to Star Wars still holds up 34 years later especially Darth Vader’s Imperial March.
While i’m not the biggest fan of the movie, Gus Van Sant’s Geri is accompanied by amazing pieces from Arvo Part’s Alina.
The score to ‘Jackie Brown.’ The summer I first saw it, my cousin and I played the DVD probably 10 times just to hear the jams while we waited for the soundtrack to arrive in the mail
clearly the winning entry here -
Morricone’s score to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Nothing can top it. NOTHING.
My favorite score is the “Sneakers” soundtrack composed by James Horner with saxophone solos by Branford Marsalis. SNEAKY SNEAKY
Ping Island/Lightning Strike Rescue Op by Mark Mothersbaugh in Life Aquatic. The whole soundtrack was brilliant with Seu Jorge covering Bowie…Brazilian Bowie and boats! I knit myself a red hat, downloaded Ping Island as my ringtone and pretended to be on a mission for a month.
Disney’s Tron has one of the best music scores out there. Daft Punk really stepped it up.
I really like the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack. And the Amelie soundtrack was my study music for 2 years straight.
Amelie is probably my all time favorite movie score. At least I think it’s one of the only ones I ever actually purchased on CD (yeah back in the old days!). I still listen to it whenever I need to get motivated to do something. It’s so high energy! Would love to see Yann Tiersen.
The soundtrack for the movie Pan’s Labyrinth! It’s SUPER Intense and SUPER awesome! No one can deny that!
Clint Mansell’s ‘The Fountain.’ The highs are ecstatic, and the lows on that album are so heartbreaking. It’s forty minutes of magic and it has never let me down.
Garden State…great soundtrack, not-so-great movie.
Svetlana- we are sisters separated at birth. Loved this little story!
I adore the score to “Chocolat”. It’s rich, romantic and dripping with gorgeousness…
Am I allowed to say Staying Alive which is tied for the best sequel ever.
But in all seriousness It is Amelie. I watched the movie and became a huge yann tiersen fan. My brother flew to france to see him after I converted him.
Johnny Greenwood’s (Radiohead guitarist/genius) score to “There Will Be Blood.” I downloaded and listened to it for weeks before seeing the film and thought it was beautiful. Now it conjures up images of oil milkshakes and bowling pin-clubbed skulls, but it’s still amazing.
How has no one said The Graduate! Greatest soundtrack of all time. Iconic…
my favorite musical score is the one for Traffic.
yann tierson tix would be great for my girlfriend, who is just finishing up a homesick week here in dc after moving from paris.
Black Hawk Down has a pretty impressive score – a mix of arabic, metal, and a little bit of traditional irish thrown in. I read once that the drummers in the orchestra ended up with bloody hands after a few takes of some of the songs. Yann Tiersen is a beautiful counterbalance to that, and I cherish balance. TIcket me?
Philip Glass’ score for The Illusionist (the Ed Norton version) is a romantic masterpiece that’s perfect as reading/cooking/chatting music (ha, similar to Amelie!)
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (Danny Elfman)- I love this film score. Elfman added a wonderful combination of beautiful, sad, epic compositions that really complimented Burton’s film. Without the music the film might have had such a silly feeling. Elfman’s score created the mood – and made it seem so big, real and yet surreal at the same time.
Yann Tierson is an amazing composer – I think his music had a similar effect on the film Amelie. I still listen to that soundtrack – and even watched the movie last week for the 500th time.
Spike Lee with Terence Blanchard in the Inside Man. It gets me. Everytime. Cue chills-down-back-effect.
Little Miss Sunshine by Devotchka!
I’d have to say my favorite would be the score to Amelie. Tiersen’s selections for his arrangements are so varied and beautiful. I am really curious to see what he will be doing live.
If i had to pick a number two, i’d say the Life Aquatic. All acoustic Bowie covers by the Brazillian singer Seu Jorge. Pretty brilliant.
Berlin Calling, all music by DJs on Berlin’s best BPitch records – including Paul Kaulkbrenner, Sascha Funke… Also a really bug fan of Goodbye lenin’s score (also by Yann)
Winners chosen! Thanks for commenting!