Peeve

[jbsegal]

I hate the use of blatantly out-of-period music in period drama movies.

I'm fine with re-setting period things (G&S, Shakespeare) to different periods and using appropriate music with them, but techno/electronica in a 1910's period piece really really bugs me.


This isn't even the start of why I loathe Moulin Rouge, though.

Comments

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

If you disliked Moulin Rouge, Gangs of New York would probably kill you.

Luckily, I can recommend with a clear conscience that you skip it, as it basically sucked.

Re:

[justinjs.livejournal.com]

Agreed... except for Daniel Day-Lewis. I thought that he was fabulous in an otherwise skippable movie.

[gravitrue.livejournal.com]

So how do you feel about out of period errors
made by G&S and Shakespeare?

Re:

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

A brief - or even an extended - anachronism in the script of a piece doesn't bother me...it integrates into the whole much better than out-of-style music does.

Good soundtracks enhance and I just don't think what I'm talking about enhances - it just breaks the mood, repetedly.

[totient]

Ah. The secret is, Moulin Rouge is not a period drama, it's a contemporary comedy. I still didn't like it very much, though.

[the-nita.livejournal.com]

Okay - what started this rant, hon? MR?

Can I ask an art question? If putting them into different period clothing, local & the like, why is putting the music different bad?

Re:

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

What started this (this time) was "Iron Jawed Angels", as mentioned in the Now Playing ("Music"?) field of this entry.

http://www.hbo.com/films/ironjawedangels/?ntrack_para1=leftnav_category5_show0

It's the story of the Suffrage movement in the US, 1915-1917 or so.

To quote from an IMDB review:

Ron Smolin (rsmolin@ix.netcom.com)
Philadelphia

Date: 17 February 2004
Summary: Excellent Story, Terrible Music

This docu-drama provides a wonderful story of the right-to-vote movement early last century, but whoever selected the anachronistic music soundtrack has to be taken out and shot. The idea is to show what it was like in 1900-1920 period, and the production shots and camera work do a fine job; but why in the world do we need rock'n'roll music to offer a major distraction to the film? This really made watching the movie at times repugnant. And the director and editor decided to do some fancy, techno editing effects, which further removed the film from the proper time setting. But the fine acting by all major players, and the great story itself, save this film.
= = =

and someone else said, in part:

"Think of a great movie like Richard III, a retelling of the Shakespeare play set not in late 15th Cenury England but in the 1930s during the rise of Nazism. The film embraced the anachronism and used it to telling effect. Iron Jawed Angels, by contrast, is littered with false moments and sounds that distract rather than reinforce the story."

Moulin Rouge (with a spoiler, in case anyone cares)

[nosebeepbear.livejournal.com]

As if the rest wasn't bad enough, the main character dying of TB in the middle of her big number irked me more than I can possibly tell you.

Re:

[the-nita.livejournal.com]

Fair enough - I'm not familiar with the movie.

Just checking if it was a scenario specific problem, or the whole "taking things out of time period" thing in toto.