Best soundtracks

[MurkeyChris]

Prompted by Des's post on music and film, has best soundtracks been done yet? I'm thinking here about music written specifically for film, TV or theatre, rather than exisiting songs puts to good use.

A couple of favourites:





Chris

[judith]

I thought Yann Tiersen wrote some beautiful stuff for the film, Amélie, like "La Valse d' Amélie". Oh, but then this thread is about the entire soundtrack.

[Adam Blake]

Badly Drawn Boy's s/t for "About A Boy".

[kk]

all of Eleni Karaindrou's soundtracks

Philip Glass (although he wrote too many recently and has become a bit formulaic)

Tindersticks Trouble Every Day and Nenette Et Boni

[Adam Blake]

Bob Dylan's s/t for "Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid"

(kk, Eleni Karaindrou's s/t's are better than the movie in my experience!)

And, of course, the big daddy - Ennio Morricone for Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns - what would they be without that music?

[David Flower]

even better Morricone - The Mission and Cinema Paradiso. Tearduct tuggers both

21 Grams had a great soundtrack

Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter

[Dayna]

Mission Impossible TV Theme. Haven't seen the movie.


The Godfather

[judith]

Another thread reminded me of a soundtrack I liked on a film directed by Percy Adlon, original music by Bob Telson.

Bagdad Cafe

[Rob Hall]

Another thread reminded me of a soundtrack I liked on a film directed by Percy Adlon, original music by Bob Telson.

Bagdad Cafe

A very odd film, even more so for the fact that it has Jack Palance in it. That song on the soundtrack is something else (well, the vocal performance is anyway):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHkW0Cw5w94&feature=related[/youtube]

[kevin]

Michael Nyman - The Draughtsman's Contract. A perfect match.

[kas]

I love Bagdad Café. Jack Palance shines in it, a very quirky role, and he looks like he's really enjoying it.

My current soundtrack favourite (and film) is Pergolesi's Stabat Mater used in Denys Arcand's Jesus de Montreal. Brilliant combination.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Zi2pkTVfg[/youtube]

Around the same time that film came out Krysztof Kieslowski put out his film Double Life of Veronique (which some of you may find artsy fartsy, but never mind), that used the pseudo-classical soundtrack of Zbigniew Preisner rather well.
I liked the "Van den Budenmeyer" compositions enough to be disappointed when I found out that Preisner only wrote exactly the sequence used in the films, not the entire piece.

[Des]

John Barry's music for 'Walkabout' is gorgeous.

Bernard Herrman's scores for 'North By Northwest' and 'Taxi Driver'.

Joe Hisaishi's dreamy music to Miyazaki's wonderful animes like 'Spirited Away' and 'My Neighbour Totoro'.

Agree with Adam and Kas re. Morricone and Preisner respectively.

[Tom McPhillips]

Witness - Maurice Jarre -I've said it before - this is like a home movie for me - and it absolutely encapsulates this place.. the Amish, Moravian and Mennonite sects of Pennsylvania Dutchland...

The Last Picture Show - affected me deeply - loved the music

and just released here - an absolutely brilliant film with an equally brilliant soundtrack - Where the Wild Things Are --

[Des]

Ry Cooder's soundtrack to 'Paris, Texas'. Fab.

[John Crosby]

I'd agree with most of the choices above. Of, more, let's say, 'traditional musical' soundtracks, I'd go for 'Cabaret', closely followed by (the sublime) 'Koyaanisqatsi' and (the hilariously bad taste) 'The Producers' (the original one with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder). All three changed film history in their own way.