It will come as no particular surprise to any long-time habitue of this particular corner of the internets that the cinetrix is a pushover for pop music in film. And over the course of several semesters giving her film class, she's deployed a variety of films for the compilation soundtrack lesson, with varying levels of success.
It's easy pickings to show the kiddies short clips of Natalie Portman insisting to Zach Braff that the Shins will change his life or John Cusack persuading unsuspecting customers that the Beta Band is the purchase they want to take home or even an opening credits sequence that suggests Molly Ringwald is pretty, favors pink, but is not, like Caroline, the protagonist of the titular Psych Furs song, the town bicycle. Tougher is screening Dazed and Confused without derailing into a discussion about how awesome pot is; or Chungking Express, when the last thing the kids want is a postmodern narrative in Mandarin Cantonese featuring reggae and Cranberries covers; or Diva, which sails over the heads of those born long after the "is it live or is it Memorex" era.
But every so often I get it right. Or rightish. See, a few months back I slotted Once into the pop music slot, which we screened Monday afternoon. Yeah, that's right, just after it won Best Song. Still, I suspect it'll be a harder slog than some in class this Wednesday, given that the music is generated by the principals, mostly in the diegesis. But how smart did I feel when it swept under Menken's nose to carry away the Best Song honors?
And then there was this email, waiting for me when I got home tonight:
Hello Prof. Cinetrix,
I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the movie we watched this afternoon. I absolutely loved the music and even downloaded some songs when I got home.
I'm glad you showed it to us.
See you Wednesday.
Damn, it feels good to be an educator.
Incidentally, if you saw this and weren't moved, not only are you made of stone, you should probably unsubscribe from this feed right now. Fair play to those who dream.
* Finally, if you want to lose sleep, may I recommend the Gaeilge iteration of Wikipedia? Irish is truly a language like no other.
