Music of Sound

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amo, amas, amat… I studied (and I use the term loosely) latin for two years at high school & all I can remember is how to conjugate the verb, but its cinema that I love and here is a brief list of six films that I love dearly and which have profoundly influenced me…

Wings of Desire (1987) by Wim Wenders started it for me in many ways – it was the late 80s & I was at university studying a subject I didnt actually enjoy, let alone wish to pursue as a career & a good friend of mine who was taking german film studies suggested I skip my lectures & come see this film… & thank god I did! It was like someone switched on a light – until that point my idea of film was entirely Hollywood based & I will be eternally grateful that fate lead me to this film. I watched it again recently & it effected me as powerfully as the first viewing… it was also truly resonant to last year visit Berlin for the first time & stumble across locations from the film. Here is a link to the official site and an unofficial site plus a link where you can buy a copy on dvd and the trailer:

Next was Down By Law (1986) by Jim Jarmusch It was about the same time & I totally fell for the pacing, fantastic score by John Lurie & charismatic performances by Tom Waits, John Lurie & Roberto Benigni. Buy a copy on dvd here. or watch the trailer:

Wreckmeister Harmonies (2000) by Bela Tarr was a much more recent discovery, as in this year & thanks to an interview with Gus Van Sant or I may never have discovered the genius of Bela Tarr, master of the long take & truly balletic cinematography.Interview here or buy a copy on dvd here or watch the trailer:

Amelie (2001) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet wasn’t the first film by this brilliant french director that I had seen – i loved Delicatessan & even more so City of Lost Children, but Amelie (& Audrey Tatou) has a charm all her own – it made me want to visit Paris tomorrow… dvd available hereor watch the trailer:

3 Iron (2004) by Kim Ki Duk intrigued the hell out of me via the description in the film festival guidebook: ‘a film with only six lines of dialogue & yet a crystal clear story’ This film is pure genius and it has led me on to discover & thoroughly enjoy many of the Korean directors other films, in particular Spring, Summer Autumn, Winter and Spring Again. Buy a copy of 3 Iron on dvd here or watch the trailer:

And lastly Tony Takitani (2004) by Jun Ichikawa
While researching my first trip to Japan a few years back I googled contemporary Japanese fiction & discovered the truly amazing writer Haruki Murakami and have since proceeded to read & enjoy every book he has ever written. Tony Takitani is a short story of his & represents the only work that he has ever allowed to be adapted for the silver screen. And what a film it is! With a fantastic minimalist piano score by Ryuichi Sakamoto this film is incredibly moving & a true expression of the elusive power of cinema. There is an interview with Murakami here, reviews, excerpts & an audio interview and the dvd is available here or watch the trailer:

There is a common thread to these six films, and its about the human condition… and its sad but true that thirty seconds emotionally engaging with any of these is worth more than $200 million of the cold hearted visual effects/action driven inanities marketed by Hollywood as this seasons next block buster wannabe… but hey thats just my humble opinion, to each their own! But if you are reading this & agree or disagree, please do reccomend me a film or six?

Do icebergs sing?
Do electric sheep dream of rechargeable batteries?

Between July and November 2002 researchers picked up incredily clear acoustic signals when recording seismic signals to measure earthquakes and tectonic movements on the Ekstroem ice shelf on Antarctica’s South Atlantic coast. The sound waves from the iceberg had a frequency of around 0.5 hertz, but if you’d like to listen to the sounds pitched up into human hearing levels, have a listen to this recording as a .WAV file. Tracking the signal, the scientists found a 50 by 20 kilometre iceberg that had collided with an underwater peninsula which it was slowly scraping against it. Check the bit three minutes into the file – that iceberg was angry! Read more here

“The soundtrack for Forbidden Planet (1956) is today recognized as the first entirely electronic score for a film” – I’m quoting from The World of Kane a great blog (retro candy for your eyes and ears) that recently posted a tribute to Louis and Bebe Barron, pioneering american avante garde composers. The article includes some great mp3 samples… check it out here and heres the trailer – nostalgia alert!!

Culturally & musically Gamelan is incredibly interesting & beautiful music…. friends returned from a holiday in Bali recently & aside from successfully avoiding stupid drunk Australian tourists they recounted the most amazing tales of gamelan performances that they witnessed… If you are unfamiliar here is an unsteadi-cam video of a gamelan performance:

I just love the hypnotic nature of the rhythms and the group tempo shifts… Here are some performances of gamelan music from central Java in the style of the Keraton Surakarta, recorded in the Museum of Ethnography Nusantara in Delft, the Netherlands;

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And here is a link to 16bit 44.1kHz .WAV individual samples from the same instruments (which are over 200 years old) plus a zip compressed 50MB file of the entire sample collection – read more here.

Well to be honest this short film is actually called ‘One Apartment and Six Drummers’ but in all reality (well reality as I know it) it could equally be called ‘One Apartment and Six Foley Artists” but hey, who can blame them for the taking the path more likely understood by the audience? Either way its a genius piece of film making….

But before you push play, one word of advice – unless you are young & require instant gratification I would advise against watching it on youtube – I have a theory everything on youtube is 2 – 6 frames out of sync and in this case it makes a mockery of the painstaking work that went into making this film (& its true of ALL film if you ask me, but millions of people watch cable TV out of sync every day so who am I to complain, right?) Anyway if you would like to experience it as the film makers intended please go to one of my favourite short film blogs No fat clips!!! and download a proper in-sync copy for yourself You owe it to your senses!

And believe you me; brushing your teeth will never be the same again, let alone walking the dog….