So I am watching 30 minutes if Ferris Bueller and was blown away by what I remember the first time- his bedroom was the coolest any kid could imagine. Back in the day it was the amazing record store exclusive over sized posters that drew me in. All were cutting edge that screamed super cool. But as I watched it tonight it was the Gretsch white falcon and the emulator that blew me away. Are there movies by any other director that you can think of that seemed to love music and made a conscious effort to share that quite like the late great John Hughes?
Edgar Wright (Baby Driver) Wes Anderson (Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums) Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, etc)
I liked the women Hughes picked. Molly Ringwald, Mia Sara, Kristy Swanson, Liz McGovern, etc. Very dreamy without implication of easy.
Martin Scorcese - one of the best directors for use of music. Worked on "Woodstock", "Elvis On Tour" as well as his own films "The Last Waltz", the George Harrison doc and the two Bob Dylan docs.
As great as those John Hughes films can be, I think some of what you're admiring is part of an 80's bedroom aesthetic. I have been watching old episodes of Facts of Life and Growing Pains (don't ask) and I always love the interior room shots, really cool posters plastered all over the place. I think I've recently seen Madonna, Talking Heads, Culture Club, Cyndi Lauper, and Duran Duran artefacts in the various bedrooms. They just jump off the walls at you.
Over The Edge (1979) Music from these artists/bands, verbal reference to Gene Simmons of KISS. Posters/t-shirts from bands of the time. Cheap Trick The Cars Van Halen The Ramones Jimi Hendrix Valerie Carter Little Feat Along with the movie SDTK and the Live At Budokan album, this movie/music really pushed Cheap Trick's popularity/fanbase that was just starting to grow prior to this movie. Cheap Trick were on top of the world now.
The Big Chill. Not sure whether the tracks were chosen by Lawrence Kasdan or by a music editor. There are not one, but two soundtrack albums for this movie. although the second album has four songs that are not in the movie
Hughes was a huge music fan with a big album collection. He chose all the songs used in his movies and I think at one point started his own record company to do the soundtracks or other albums. You can spin the picture around with your mouse:
From Wikipedia: "Along with Easy Rider (1969), American Graffiti was one of the first films to eschew a traditional film score and successfully rely instead on synchronizing a series of popular hit songs with individual scenes." "Drawing upon his large collection of vintage records, Lucas wrote each scene with a particular song in mind as its musical backdrop. The cost of licensing the 75 songs Lucas wanted was one factor in United Artists' ultimate decision to reject the script; the studio also felt it was too experimental—"a musical montage with no characters"." They say RCA was one of the only companies to reject what Universal was offering to pay for music rights and therefore no Elvis songs are heard in the movie. "Clearing the music licensing rights had cost approximately $90,000, and as a result, no money was left for a traditional film score. "I used the absence of music, and sound effects, to create the drama," Lucas later explained. "A soundtrack album for the film, 41 Original Hits from the Soundtrack of American Graffiti, was issued by MCA Records. The album contains all the songs used in the film (with the exception of "Gee" by the Crows, which was subsequently included on a second soundtrack album), presented in the order in which they appeared in the film."
Bought the dvd set of Square Pegs a few years ago, and while I was watching it, I noticed a poster of King Crimson from when their second album Beat came out, that I had the very same poster I scored from my local record store. Band head and shoulders shot of Belew, Fripp, Bruford and Levin.
Now, that's a cool band to have on a TV character's wall. Love The Waitresses theme song to that show too.
Was Cabaret Voltaire's "Microphonies" even released in the U.S.? I bought my copy when I was in Germany and I was shocked to see the poster in the movie.
Not that I know of since my Brother is the one who handles most of the TV activities. He did buy it on Amazon Prime for about $10. I have the VHS of the movie too. Why the SDTK has never been reissued on CD is kind of weird.
Oh god, John Hughes films changed my life. Not always in a good way, but they did nonetheless. I've recently got Pretty In Pink on Blu-Ray! EG.
Hal Ashby directed "Coming Home" and Francis Ford Coppala did "Apocalypse Now"........A couple fantastic impacting late 70's films greatly enhanced by the music in them.
did nobody like Curly Sue, was it really that bad? I used to love it, the part where they all start punching each other is still pretty funny. But I guess movie didn't connect with the audience