What makes a great soundtrack?
The marriage of action with visuals?
The creation of a unique atmosphere?
The use of familiar music in an unexpected way?
The introduction to a genre or artist you’ve never heard before?
Any of these would work for me – you will very rarely find all in one movie but any one can make the difference between a good movie and an out-and-out classic.
Here is a list (with a few clips) of sixteen of my favourites in A-Z order.
Note : not one of them is by the ubiquitous Hans Zimmer!
When Lynne Ramsey’s film adaptaion of the Alan Warner cult novel ‘Movern Callar’ was released in 2002 it got a fair amount of publicity in the smart press. Thereafter it joined the legion of ‘lost’ movies and living in Italy I never got to see it to understand why. Having seen and admired Ramsey’s first movie ‘Ratcatcher’ I didn’t think it could be an out and our dud. Now, thanks to a 5 quid DVD picked up at Fopp in Glasgow I’ve finally got to see what the lack of fuss was about.
