Xixax Film Forum

Non-Film Discussion => Real-Life Soundtracks => Topic started by: Pubrick on March 04, 2010, 08:44:04 AM

Title: did peter jackson ruin Song To The Siren?
Post by: Pubrick on March 04, 2010, 08:44:04 AM
i will never see The Lovely Bones and i hate to make anyone relive the trauma but it came to my attention that it features This Mortal Coil's cover of tim buckley's Song To The Siren. this is very upsetting to me cos it has already been used magically and definitively by David Lynch in the desert sex scene in Lost Highway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Laf8bhSeGNY

Lynch was obsessed with the song and happy to finally find a place to use it after legal wrangling kept him from using it in Blue Velvet. he considered it one of the all time greatest songs ever written and you can hear its influence (or maybe just shoegazing/dream pop in general) on his work with julee cruise.

can anyone describe to me in detail what happens in the scene in Lovely Bones where this song plays and if it's as ill-fitting as every other choice peter jackson seems to have made in that turkey?

this can also be a Song To The Siren appreciation thread (WE'VE BEEN SORELY LACKING ONE!)
Title: Re: did peter jackson ruin Song To The Siren?
Post by: MacGuffin on March 04, 2010, 10:36:50 AM
Quote from: ρ on March 04, 2010, 08:44:04 AMcan anyone describe to me in detail what happens in the scene in Lovely Bones where this song plays and if it's as ill-fitting as every other choice peter jackson seems to have made in that turkey?


*SPOILERS*



It's played over the ending when Susie is about to cross over to Heaven and meets all those that were murdered by Mr. Harvey. It feels distracting because the song seems to overpower the scene instead of being about what Susie is feeling.
Title: Re: did peter jackson ruin Song To The Siren?
Post by: hedwig on March 04, 2010, 12:26:26 PM
desert sex is my favourite lynch thing.
Title: Re: did peter jackson ruin Song To The Siren?
Post by: Just Withnail on March 04, 2010, 06:43:39 PM
Yes!

I prefer this live-version to the studio one, but just because I fell in love with all it's little idiosyncrasies first. 



The video noise, the slow zooms into Elizabeth's shy sincerity (the shyness such a contrast against the huge imagery flowing effortlessly through that vibrating throat of hers), the fact it's just them two, the ocean of the lyrics and the fire of the feel of it in the blue and orange light, the everything I can't write just watch and listen.
Title: Re: did peter jackson ruin Song To The Siren?
Post by: brockly on March 04, 2010, 07:20:06 PM
here's the scene from TLB that uses the song. if you have no desire to watch the film then go for it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwXuhNRU6NI

in terms of the song's meaning and tone, i don't think it has any place in TLB. besides, anyone who recognises Song To The Siren from LH (which most definately is the song's definitive incorporation into cinema) is going to be heavily distracted by its use in that scene. i certainly was. Lynch's eventual use of the song transcended simply finding the right scene for it, it influenced the entire story arch of his film.
Title: Re: did peter jackson ruin Song To The Siren?
Post by: pete on March 04, 2010, 09:11:24 PM
so I had a dream where I was fucking a girl named Alice.  Then I woke up to this thread where Alice and Pete do it.  so now she's coming over in an hour.
Title: Re: did peter jackson ruin Song To The Siren?
Post by: Pubrick on March 04, 2010, 09:54:10 PM
cheers mac. and brockly, that clip you posted seems like the song completely drowns the dialogue, isn't that asian chick saying something? if it really played like that then it definitely took away from the scene, as in literally took the sound away.

and pete.. let her make the first move!
Title: Re: did peter jackson ruin Song To The Siren?
Post by: brockly on March 04, 2010, 10:07:16 PM
yea, sorry didn't watch the clip for long enough to realise. the audio from the film is muted, but the music sync appears to be identical (from memory).
Title: Re: did peter jackson ruin Song To The Siren?
Post by: Just Withnail on February 17, 2015, 05:00:20 AM
Every day is a good day to see that live version of Song to the Siren up there. I've been obsessing over it lately. One of the most beautiful things I know.