Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Drive soundtrack and Symmetry: Themes for an Imaginary Film


Knowing nothing about this film besides a preview I saw months ago that just basically showed Ryan Gosling sitting around in a 1970s muscle car, I watched it last night and it was one of the best, and coolest films I have seen in a long time.  The one thing that helped elivate and set this film apart from most others is the pulsing 1980s tinged electro soundtrack; sometimes krautrock, sometimes industrial, always cool.  Really great with the stylized, oversaturated orange and green Los Angeles of today.  The song below is played over the opening credits and is one of a few tracks that feature vocals.

Nightcall (feat. Lovefoxxx) by Kavinsky

While looking for the soundtrack and who was featured throughout the film I found that origanally the director Nicolas Winding Refn wanted Johnny Jewel of Glass Candy to score.  The producers didn't trust a 20 year old to score the film so they hired Cliff Martinez who was the perfect backup plan.  Three years in the making, Symmetry, the project that began as a conceptual tangent between Glass Candy, Chromatics, Mirage, and Desire's more abstract sides shows possibly what Jewel had in mind if he would have been able to write the score.  Symmetry isn't his score for Drive but comes from the same place and has the same influences as Martinez's score.  An alternate audio history I suppose.
  


If you like Drive I suggest you watch Refn's last film Bronson, which tells the true life story of Britains most notorious inmate.  It features a batshit, insane performance by Tom Hardy who will become a household name this summer after squaring off against Christian Bale as Bane in Christopher Nolan's final Batman: The Dark Knight Rises.

No comments:

Post a Comment