Movies are a fresh and unique way to carry sound and art with us as we move around the world every day. We can also find a type of love as we enjoy the classical tracks placed over the action in films like Fantasia (1940, The Sorcerer's Apprentice), or The Big Lebowsky 1998, Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition). We can start by enjoying something as massive as Sunflower by Post Malone and Swae Lee which got 2 Billion streams over the past four years after appearing as the title track in the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie or Forget About Me from the ending of1984's The Breakfast Club. The scene where Judd Nelson leaves Saturday detention and triumphantly holds up his hand as the screen pauses are magnificently personified.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) dir Frank Darabont - “Duettino-Sull’aria” from Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.”
Imagine you’re in 1994, and your mom lets you pick out a film. Obviously, as a very mature child of the era, you clearly pick The Shawshank Redemption, a film version of a Steven King short story that sees Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman play two criminals forced to spend 20 to 30 years inside the gates of the penitentiary. It is not a particularly soft movie, but has beautiful moments inside the characters' lives.
Narrated by Freeman’s character, Red, he tells a series of stories about his new friend Andy (Tim Robbins). Red is good at "getting things" and you can tell they've been on the inside quite a while already. What he does is share stories about how the environment of Shawshank changes once Andy is allowed inside. In one of the stories, he goes over Andy getting access to the warden’s office. While there, after locking the assigned officer in the bathroom to read his Jughead comic, he proceeds to play the Duettino-Sull’aria from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Of it, Red says the following:
“I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid… and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.”
Again... beautiful moments inside the characters' lives.
Elvis (2022) dir Baz Luhrman - “Trouble” at Russwood Park
Imagine you’re in 2022 and you’re finally going to get to go see the director Baz Luhrman’s newest movie everyone has been talking about. It’s called Elvis and it’s about the life and times of one of the greatest showmen of the 20th century, Elvis Presley.
What homework did you even need to do? You just rolled into the theatre and started watching this ridiculous story about Elvis. You know the hits, but not the ones quite like this. There’s a bit on Wikipedia that reads, “When Elvis flouts the authorities' warnings and performs sexually charged dance moves at a concert, he faces legal trouble.” Hanks’ character Col. Tom Parker convinces the government to send Elvis to the U.S. Army of the late 1950s. However, when you see the way that Austin Butler performs the song Trouble with a big band behind him, all the cameras on him, and a series of women losing their minds, you completely understand the strength of Elvis’ hip thrusting that launched the police into that scene with hands on their sticks.
There's nothing worse than a gang of 50s police with their hands on their sticks.
Get Out (2017) dir Jordan Peele — The Sunken Place by Timothy Williams
Imagine it’s you in 2018, back when the world was still a little different and maybe even a little better for you. Rather than another night at home, you decide to go out with your friend to check out this recent film by a new filmmaker. Jordan Peele? You'd never heard of him directing, but that's definitely the guy from Key and Peele. That's the show you’ve been watching with your comedy friends every night and it's strange that the movie he's directed is called Get Out. You wonder what sort of hilarious thing this film will be about?
You step into the theatre and watch as our lead actor, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) is taken away from the world he knows to this completely new and different place that’s filled with all manner of very interesting white persons. They really like to touch him a lot and suddenly, this movie is almost oppressively creepy.
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There’s one scene where you learn that the mother his girlfriend’s family has the power to hypnotize people. It’s something she’s already done to him, in fact. She questions him about the worst memories in his life surrounding the night his mother died. Unable to resist, he tearfully answers her questions as he loses more and more of himself over to her. She eventually convinces him to “sink into the floor” and that is exactly what he does.
Normally, you might be overcome by composer Timothy Williams' rendition of The Sunken Place. It's short, but very much takes over both the gothic parts and the gospel call and response. This dangerous tune is almost as pained in itself as Chris sinks further and further into the Sunken Place. He can see the mother from the little box left in his brain until she eventually moves closer and shuts his eyes. She basically turns his lights out.
Your Amazing Cinematic Imagination
It is amazing where your imagination can take you. Sometimes, all you have to do is think of your favorite moments from your favorite films and you're almost immediately snapped back to it as if you were watching it right now. What are some of your favorite movie moments? Try to remember your faves even as you make more. Sometimes, that's the major thing that keeps us all together.