Falling Quickly For A Scene
November 8th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Many of my favourite films are about music and musicians. Hard Core Logo, Almost Famous, High Fidelity, 24 Hour Party People and The Commitments probably being at the top of my list. These are films that are not only about creative people, but that are fuelled by the product of that creativity itself. Meaning that the music, and the power of the music, stands almost as tall as all the other dramatic elements within those films. Think of Almost Famous and the “Tiny Dancer” scene. Or, The Commitments and “Destination Anywhere”. Or the following scene from Once. To me, this is as near to perfect as a scene can get.
Consider the set-up: Guy, a busker, and Girl have just met. Girl wants Guy to fix her vacuum, which Guy considers a slight nuisance at first. That is, until he discovers that Girl is a musician as well. Together, they go into a music shop and she plays a piece by Mendelssohn at the piano. Then, she coaxes Guy to play one of his songs so that she can accompany him. He briefly plays the melody for her, then takes her through the chord changes and the bridge. He thinks he knows this song — he wrote it after all — but that’s about to change. Without actually speaking words to each other, these characters — who both felt off course with their lives — will influence each other in a way that no other person could have. And, it’s all because of this one perfect moment where a song becomes their song.
