The Influence of Music on the Narrative

I'm an extreme movie buff so movies definitely take up a lot of my time and I must say that especially after last week's lecture, I began to take note (even moreso than usual) of music used in film and how it weaves itself into and thus often, influences the narrative.

What struck me the most out of last week's lecture was when Psycho was brought up. Psycho is definitely one of my all-time favorite "oldies" movies; I think Alfred Hitchcock is/was a right master in his craft...especially considering the time his movies were made. Anyway, I thought it highly interesting when this guy (forgot his name!!) started talking about the scene where Marion is driving in her car. Nothing out of the ordinary happens in the scene but it is the score used at the time that heightens the suspense in that sequence. You know that something bad is going to happen because of the music.

I guess it's because we are so used to the presence of music in movies that we don't think too much of it's effect on the film. I find it amazing that music is so much a part of the film narrative these days that often you do not even realize it's there. If executed right, they work extremely well hand-in-hand to help push and/or complement the narrative. But turn off the volume and how we would interpret scenes in a film could potentially be completely different compared to when we saw the film with sound.

I watched Everything Is Illuminated not too long ago - has anyone else watched that? It is one of the films that, in my opinion, uses music quite well not only as part of the narrative, but also as a storytelling tool.

I have posted 3 clips from different points in the movie below. This can also tie in with what was talked about during the lecture today, and that is the different ways in which music is used in film: via quotation, allusion and leitmotiv. In each of the clips, the music takes on a different "role" per se. I think that is highly interesting; that how with just tweaking the volume, or adding dialogue, for example, a singular piece of music can bring about so many different meanings.

For those of youse who have not watched this film, the track that you hear in the clips is pretty much the only music that is used throughout the movie. This has gotten me wondering too then about films which use a standard "theme song" (eg. Mission Impossible, Harry Potter) vs. those which use several similar-themed songs (eg. Marie Antoinette)- what motivates and determines the music composer/designer to choose one over the other? If flipped, (if Mission Impossible used only similar-themed songs) would it be any more effective or less?

Anyway here are the clips from Everything Is Illuminated:







So what do you all reckon?