Now yes, movie specialists will tell me: “you make a list of soundtracks without any mention of Hanz Zimmer? You’re a criminal”. This point works for John Williams as well, I am sure. However, other than muttering sounds, you cannot really sing along to both of these musical geniuses’ creations. This does not take away from the beauty of their work, far from it. Interstellar, Star Wars, Inception and more, all these have amazing scores. However, this is not the aim of the article today.
In this new year, I want to sing, and after watching these movies you’ll want to follow me and go onto Spotify to find the soundtrack playlists. Now there is a caveat to this. These are some of my favourite movies as well. I fully know that the score of The Graduate or Pulp Fiction should be on here. However, I have not watched them that many times and I certainly have not looked up the soundtrack playlists on Spotify, unlike all these other movies. The selection was always going to be subjective, and I certainly do not claim this is the best selection, but it is my selection. So here is my list of 10 movies you should not only watch, but will fully enjoy singing along to during and after the movie. Here is part 1. Enjoy.
The Boat That Rocked – Directed by Richard Curtis, 2009
The movie that inspired this list. I watched it for the first time very recently, discovering the amazing story of pirate radio in the United Kingdom. Reliving the story of 1966-1967, the golden age of pirate radio, through the story of ‘Radio Rock’. This pirate radio station is based on a boat on the shores of the UK, and it regroups a dozen of people, who share a strong passion for rock music and broadcasting. As rock is only available 45 minutes a day on BBC Radio at the time, pirate radio stations brought the best music of the time to young teens who wanted to be a little bit of the edge of illegality.
Through a story of friendship, love and ultimately music, this group comes together to create the most amazing broadcasts for 23 million people around the nation, eagerly waiting to hear the new track by the Beatles or the Stones. And this comes across amazingly in the movie, where DJs play the best vinyl of the time but also have a great music choice to accompany the plot. I can think of the use of “So Long, Marianne” when things don’t go too well between Carl and well… Marianne. Maybe slightly pushed, but the song was not written for the movie, maybe the character’s name was chosen based on the song, but it just works. And finishing the movie on “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie just makes it magical. A mix of pop, rock and what we could call indie today. The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks or The Beach Boys, you choose your favourite. If you can’t choose, they are all in the movie. Just over two hours of amazing music, how about that?
A Star Is Born – Directed by Bradley Cooper, 2018
Lady Gaga is an amazing singer, no doubt about it. However, over the course of her musical career, we heard her a lot doing powerful pop songs, with a lot of background music to accompany her voice. Now, this does not take away from her obvious talent. “Love this way” or “Bad Romance” are masterpieces. Many will however know her for slightly glittery music, full of fame and fashion, like “Poker Face”, which obviously in parts has her voice reworked. However, with A Star Is Born, we not only get to see her acting, we also see her sing country music, with a simple guitar or even acoustic. Her acting career started with smaller roles in Sin City or Machete Kills, with her biopic coming out a year before this film, but this truly showed her talent of acting and singing.
Playing the role of an upcoming country music singer, Lady Gaga gets to know Bradley Cooper, playing a notorious musician. Through love and hate, both characters develop a professional relationship which eventually goes further than just the stage. With the music being written for the movie, we can firstly congratulate the writers, notably Lady Gaga but more importantly Lukas Nelson, for writing powerful music which just works in the plot. The film won Best Original Song for “Shallow” at the Academy Awards that year, showing just how good the music was. The song itself became a hit on mainstream radio. The whole movie is beautifully written, but the music just makes it just that much better. You might not be a fan of country music, but this is worth a watch.
Begin Again – Directed by John Carney, 2013
Adam Levine, Mark Ruffalo, Kiera Knightley, James Corden. A cast worth all the praise in the world, but unlike some other highly casted movies, this is a really big success. While it has not reached collective appraisal, this is certainly one of my favourites. Similar plot to A Star Is Born, the story recounts the relationship between a notorious singer, played by Adam Levine, and his girlfriend, played by Kiera Knightley, who’s a writer and up and coming singer. He mistreats her, does not respect her musical talent and even steals her song she wrote for him, the now famous “Lost Stars”. As he notices the mistreatment, Levine’s music producer, played by Mark Ruffalo, helps Knightley produce her own album. A story of passion for music, a relationship but also suffering.
The music is soulful, heart-breaking but all in all sublime, accompanying the story of musicians in the beautiful New York. Sung by the actors themselves, the movie truly lives through the music. With the participation of Cee Lo Green and Hailee Steinfeld, both actors in the film, and the Cessyl Orchestra, all comes together rather nicely. We vary from soft ballads, some indie rock and outright rock music, truly bringing the melody to New York (New York Melody being the French title for the film). “Lost Stars” was nominated for several awards, including the Academy Awards’ Best Original song, but lost to John Legend and Common’s “Glory” in the film Selma. Not necessarily the most ground-breaking idea for a script, but most definitely worth a watch.
The Greatest Showman – Directed by Michael Gracey, 2017
Musicals obviously had to be on this list, a good musical has to have good music. Maybe more important than a good script. The advantage of this one is that it has both. Growing up poor, the character played by Hugh Jackman becomes successful by working hard in upcoming businesses, before marrying the girl of his dreams. Played by Michelle Williams, his wife follows his adventure, with their two daughters, into creating the new circus in town, which showcases the weirdest characters around. By celebrating diversity, he becomes very successful but also attracts a lot of jealousy and hatred, as many do not like the diversity portrayed in his shows. Accompanied by Zendaya and Zack Effron, Jackman puts on an amazing show throughout the movie, navigating between the success of the circus and his own family life.
To follow this great story, the music captures every instant perfectly. From songs about dreams as a child, about being yourself but also impossible love between characters, you will learn all the lyrics off by heart. For me, this was also helped by the numerous karaoke nights back in England, when a few essentials of the movie were played, such as the opener “The Greatest Show” or “This is Me”. The music will make you smile, cry, dance but ultimately sing a lot. Even the powerful “Never Enough” will get you going for a few rounds. One of the modern classics when it comes to musicals.
Love Actually – Directed by Richard Curtis, 2003
For our final movie of this Part 1, we have another movie by Richard Curtis. Bit of a music fanatic, isn’t he? This certainly is not as based on music as the first one, but the music does play a major role in this romantic masterpiece. A fan favourite for Christmas, it captures the love story of a plurality of characters, from the highs of Hugh Grant, to the lows of Emma Thompson, passing by the joy brought by Martin Freeman. Great names, right? I’m sure you have watched it, but if not, try imagining the best fruit salad in the summer. Each fruit is an amazing British actor from the top of the ladder, and they’ve all been put together in a big bowl to created amazing memories. The music could be the extra bit of orange juice you put in at the end to make it all come together.
From the “All you need is love” at Kiera Knightley’s wedding, to “Bye bye baby” at Liam Neeson’s wife’s funeral, passing by “Here with me” by Dido, every song just makes the scene it accompanies so much better. Nobody can forget Hugh Grant’s dance to Pointer Sisters’ “Jump (For My Love)”, but the main song of the movie is evidently “All I Want For Christmas” at the end. Instant classic. Much like The Holiday, this Christmas classic brings everyone together for some light-hearted romance during the festive season.
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