Trilogies I have known & loved…

One trilogy they left off the chart was Gus Van Sants trilogy, starting with Gerry in 2002 (trailer) then Elephant in 2003 (trailer) and then
Last Days in 2005 (trailer)

All three of the films have very interesting soundtracks, both in sound design & use of music. Leslie Shatz is the sound designer for all three films & i tried contacting him via his companies website to no avail, as it would be interesting to interview him, amongst other things he was a dialogue editor on Rumble Fish & a sound editor on Dune. There is an interesting interview with him on the Fipresci site (the international federation of film critics) where he mentions the genre of ‘contemplative films’ which is an interesting way of putting it. In the same interview he makes a very valid point about being open to different approaches;

“In Good Will Hunting there’s the scene in the basketball court where they go to beat up the guy. That was fun because Gus wanted to make it strange…. To do that we got like 50 tracks of different musique concrète sources and different sound sources and put ‘em all up on the console. Gus just wanted to take faders and play around with them. At first, it was like, “Is this guy crazy?” [Laughs.] Then I realized there’s a method to this madness. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that I have to control my impulse to dismiss what the director’s doing when it doesn’t conform to my own preconceived ideas. It was the same with Francis Coppola. These guys shoot from the hip and it’s scary sometimes because you don’t know where you’re going to end up, but it really makes it a much more interesting experience than working with someone who’s just trying to copy a formula.”

I’m not sure if Paranoid Park (2007) (trailer) is part of the trilogy (= quadrilogy?) as it feels thematically connected, but it is also a film I recommend checking out.