Songs, Singers And The Silver Screen
The relationship between film and music is as old as cinema itself, but for every epic score there’s been a less-than-stellar star turn from a rock ‘n’ roll wannabe.
It’s perhaps harder to imagine movies without music than it is films without dialogue. Indeed, some 30 years before Al Jolson hollered “You ain’t heard nothing yet!” in The Jazz Singer- the first ever talkie - music ensured that there really has been no such thing as silent movies.
And while a lot’s changed in the years since, the soundtrack still fulfils much the same purpose — underscoring, emphasising and punctuating pictures in ways words never could. As a wise man once said, “To understand the power of music in the movies, you just need to remind yourself that no one leaves a film humming the scenery.”
John Williams, Hans Zimmer, the late, great John Barry - the film world’s great composers enjoy the same acclaim as legendary stars and directors. It’s just a pity that, for every musician that has enhanced a movie, there’s another who’s left a dark stain on cinema history.
For as long as there has been rock ‘n’ roll, there have been rock stars claiming that what they really want to do is act. The pioneering Elvis Presley starred in 33 films over the course of his short life, virtually all of them unwatchable. However, Elvis looks like Olivier when compared with some of those who dared to follow in his footsteps
From Sting in Dune to Mariah Carey in Glitter, a stream of pop stars have come to Hollywood thinking acting looks easy only to prove that it isn’t. And if you’d imagine the run of failures might lead them to think otherwise, think again. In 2011, we saw Christina Aguilera take to the screen in Burlesque, proving that, as an actress, she’s pretty good at remembering the American national anthem.
“I see no reason why a singer should make for a good movie star,” laughs film-maker Julien Temple. And having directed Sid Vicious in The Great Rock ‘N’ Swindle and David Bowie and Patsy Kensit in Absolute Beginners, he knows of what he speaks.
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