Undead Yet Unsung

Snapshot

The Musical has died a thousand times. Conservative histories hold Elvis as responsible for the death of the genre. Or they blame Rock Music and all those damn guitars and synthesizers. Elsewhere, the blame is directed to MTV and the music video, whose pyrotechnic effects are often held to be killing narrative sophistication. Or maybe the Musical is dead through abuse and overuse, courtesy of YouTube and TikTok's bottomless pit of karaokes, parodies and wannabes.

Yet, the Musical persists with its pervasive spread. Much of the negativity which critically embalms it seems mostly hurled by those who prefer to dream of golden aged Broadway stages, orchestra pits, soaring singers and pithy lyricists. 'Serious' film composers similarly dream of grand scoring and heroic tonality, professionally damming most electronic and rock-derived methods of setting music to film. But maybe their collective dismissals are unfounded – especially as they evidence scant recognition of how and why the Musical has continually reinvented its form, reassigned its sex and redrawn its terrain over the last half century.

The Musical: Unsung Yet Undead has its ear to this ignored terrain. The text is an openly revisionist and deliriously reimagined overview of precisely how the energy of music determines its own acinematic modules of performative energy: Musicals. Seemingly frivolous and cavalier in its statement, the book cites the Musical as a hot spot which film criticism has accorded little enlightenment and much damnation.

The Musical: Unsung Yet Undead is likely to be a thousand forms of indigestion for those who have already defined the Musical according to some para-cinematic proto-theatrical pseudo-social edict. But it will be a thousand amazing pills for those already suffering from the reductivist, rationalist and rarefied ways in which the Musical has been quieted by film theory. Most importantly, The Musical: Unsung yet Undead is not here to be contrary and hollowly celebrate 'bad' Musicals as peaks of camp, kitsch, irony and/or postmodernism – all strategies which serve to further empower the overbearing naturalism of Western cinema that precludes music from its domain of meaning. Far from that dry plateau of the essentialist Musical is the fantastical world of the expanded Musical. There, people do not simply sing instead of speaking. The air is amplified. Gravity is a form of plumbing. The streets are not outside. Silence is a myth. And if a person cannot sing in public unannounced and unadorned – they are forbidden to talk about Musicals.

Words: 150,000
Format: text only
180 films analyzed (approx. 20 films per chapter)
9 chapters @ 16,000 (average 750 words per film)
bibliography
filmographies
discographies
Categories: cinema, music, sound, dance, stagecraft.

Pitch

A mound of writing belabours the definition of the Musical genre. Most of it misses a crucial mark of distinction: the Musical is one of the few cinematic genres which does not so much pre-exist as literature (melodrama, romance, thriller, fantasy, horror, sci-fi, etc.) or post-exist as modern narrative (the gangster, the western, the biopic, the docudrama, etc.), as it does counter-exist as a parallel dimension. Song and dance are arguably primordial and likely to be the physical and social origins of that which our higher intelligence ordains ‘drama’ and ‘narrative’. The incursion of music, the burst of song, the unleash of dance – these are unavoidable signs of the energy which defines the Musical, just as they are signs of irritants and invasions of holistic cinematic form and classifiable genres. A Musical is thus what a film becomes.

The Musical: Unsung yet Undead is centred on what the Musical has become, what it continues to be, and how it persists under changing conditions. Seemingly reactionary in its impulse, the text inverts the Musical world as it has existed for the last 50 years, and genuinely ponders: What if Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker is a quintessential Musical? What if Flashdance is a radical re-interpretation of choreography? What if fake-rock films like Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls are incisive and not bankrupt? What if Hindi musicals like Karan Arjun are sublime and not ridiculous? The book gathers those movies which have been derided, dismissed or discounted, and contextualizes them in periods which have shaped the genre's many contortions. Across 9 chapters, the text charts the Musical's morphology:

• the hysterical stagings of Hollywood's attempt to detonate the Broadway stage on the big screen during the 1930s and 1940s
• the presumptive ways in which cinema produced popular wrongs throughout the 1950s
• the modish audio-visual ways which defined cinema's desperate synchings with the 1960s
• the attempts at wild expulsions of songs and dance in the 1970s
• the postmodern sweep of embarrassed stylings throughout the 1980s
• the vain attempts to get things 'right' which resulted in many musicological meltdowns in the 1990s
• the film and recording industries' synergism of the 2000s and the exponential increase in impossible realities and analytic spectacles
• the ongoing gaudy revisions which typify the 2010s.

It sounds negative - but it's not. Across its delirious spread of what might be an incongruous mix of films, The Musical: Unsung yet Undead captures the many ways in which music is uniquely made manifest in a film’s scenario. Key to the book’s critical agenda is how music is performed on and off screen, taking in the psycho composer (from Hangover Square to Things Behind The Sun), the schizophrenic performer (from Lipstick to The Soloist), the mystical bard (from Life On A String to All About Lily Chou Chou), the disenfranchised ego (from Saturday Night Fever to Metallica Through The Never), the maudlin star (from Angel, Angel, Down We Go to Little Voice), the electric warrior (from Electric Dragon 8,000V to Electrick Children), the solipsistic angel (from Without You I’m Nothing to Nico, 1988), the deconstructed rocker (from Keep Up Your Right to Josie & The Pussycats) and the post-colonial ghost (from Black River to Karmen Gei).

All these and more constitute figures who are not merely characters who sing or dance, but beings who have become music characterized. Such is the mode of reversal employed throughout the book’s analyses in accordance with the premise that song precedes story.

The Musical: Unsung yet Undead is not concerned with aesthetic ideologies which hamper most musical discourse due to the specious assumption that “music is a matter of taste”. Such misapprehensions determine the bravura with which criticism of Musicals tends toward flagrant exclusivity and stunted finality. The sheer confidence with which films like Beach Party, All That Jazz and Showgirls can be deemed bereft of any significance is frightening – more so that these critical shortcomings have been accepted when directed at Musicals. Even the most revered writings show their pale colours by narrowing their critical scope to match their taste in music. This is why anthologies that favour Broadway musicals are unsuited to assessing a film like Zachariah; why histories that laud Hollywood’s ‘golden musicals’ miscomprehend Pierrot La Fou; why treatises that celebrate Musicals as high romance could never fathom Moses And Aron; and why sociological investigations of communality in music would baulk at Tokyo Tribe.

The Musical: Unsung yet Undead is neither an intellectual text nor an introductory history. Nor is its scope restricted by aiming to be curriculum support material exclusively for the separated fields of musicology, cultural studies and film theory. The inclusive text voices theoretical issues and practical distinctions, and is aimed at not just those with a voracious media appetite (movie goers, music collectors, cinephiles, amateurs), but also those with keen and developing sono-musical sensibilities (composers, producers, mixers, musicians, singers, dancers, DJs). Exploiting the undying hipness of movie soundtracks, rock-cinema cross-overs and post-camp spectacles of staged singing and dancing, the book targets celebrated films to ground the reader's perceptual awareness of the substantiation of musical experience in a movie. Concurrently, a range of radical, bizarre and unconventional movies are discussed to demonstrate a new way of considering the Musical: as an instance of performative energy predicated on the production and celebration of song.


Breakdown

  • Chapter 1: The 1930s/1940s

    Hysterical Stagings

    Hallelujah! - 1929 - USA - d. King Vidor - Eva Jessye (musical director) +
    Madam Satan - 1930 - USA - d. Cecil DeMille - Jack King * & Elise Janis * + & Clifford Grey (score) & Herbert Stothart (score)
    My Song Goes Round The World - 1933 - Germany - d. Richard Oswald - Hans May & various songs */**
    Gold Diggers of 1935 - 1935 - USA - d. Busby Berkeley - Al Dubin & Harry Warren
    Babes in Arms - 1939 - USA - d. Busby Berkeley - Nacio Herb Brown * & Richard Rodgers * & Harold Arlen (lyrics)
    Cabin in the Sky - 1943 - USA - d. Vincente Minnelli - Harold Arlen ** & Vernon Duke & Duke Ellington & Lynn Root (lyrics)
    Thousands Cheer - 1943 - USA - d. George Sidney - Various songs */**
    Can’t Help Singing - 1944 - USA - d. Frank Ryan - Jerome Kern & Hans J. Salter & various classical pieces **
    Hangover Square - 1948 - UK - d. John Brahm - Bernard Herrmann
    The Red Shoes - 1948 - UK - d. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger - Brian Easdale & Kenny Baker +
    On The Town - 1949 - USA - d. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly - Leonard Bernstein & Roger Edens **

  • Chapter 2: The 1950s

    Popular Wrongs

    Chained for Life - 1951 - USA - d. Harry L. Fraser - Henry Vars
    Singin’ in the Rain - 1952 - USA - d. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly - Herb Nacio Brown * & Lennie Hayton *
    5,000 Fingers Of Dr. T - 1953 - USA - d. Roy Rowland - Frederick Hollander & Hans J. Salter (score)
    Torch Song - 1953 - USA - d. Charles Walters - Adolph Deutsch & Fritz Spielmann
    Brigadoon - 1954 - USA - d. Vincente Minnelli - Frederick Lowe ** & Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics)
    Carmen Jones - 1954 - USA - d. Otto Preminger - Georges Bizet ** & Oscar Hammerstein (lyrics)
    Red Garters - 1954 - USA - d. George Marshall - Jay Livingston **
    Rhapsody - 1954 - USA - d. Charles Vidor - Johnny Green & various Romantic pieces **
    Pete Kelly’s Blues - 1955 - USA - d. Jack Webb - Andy Hamilton & Ray Heindorf
    Sincerely Yours - 1955 - USA - d. Gordon Douglas Ray Heindorf & Howard Jackson & Paul Francis Webster & various romantic pieces **
    Rock Rock Rock! - 1956 - USA - d. Will Price - Various songs *
    Yambao! - 1957 Spain Alfredo B. Crevenna - Lan Adomain (musical director) & Obdulio Morales Ríos **
    King Creole - 1958 - USA - d. Michael Curtiz - Walter Scharf & songs by Elvis, etc. */**
    The Gene Krupa Story - 1959 - USA - d. Don Weis - Leith Stevens (score) & various jazz songs */**

  • Chapter 3: The 1960s

    Desperate Synchings

    The Wild Wild Rose - 1960 Hong Kong - Tian-Lin Wang - Ryochi Hattori & Min Yao
    Five Minutes to Live - 1961 - USA - d. Bill Karn - Johnny Cash * & Gene Kauer (score)
    West Side Story - 1961 - USA - d. Robert Wise - Leonard Bernstein
    Beach Party - 1963 - USA - d. William Asher - Les Baxter & various songs *
    Bye Bye Birdie - 1963 - USA - d. George Sidney - Charles Strauss ** & Michael Stewart (lyrics)
    The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg - 1964 - France - d. Jacques Demy - Michel Legrand
    Pierrot Le Fou - 1965 - France - d. Jean Luc Godard - Antoine Duhamel (score) & Boris Bassiak * +
    Out Of Sight - 1966 - USA - d. Lennie Weintraub - Fred Darian * & Al De Lory * & Nicke Venet *
    The Cool Ones - 1967 - USA - d. Gene Nelson - Ernie Freeman (score) & Sammy Cahn * & Lee Hazelwood * & Billy Strange * & Jack Lloyd * & Jule Styne *
    Privilege - 1967 - UK - d. Peter Watkins - Mike Leander * & Mark London *
    Riot On Sunset Strip - 1967 - USA - d. Arthur Dreifuss - Fred Karger (score) & Mike Curb * & Dave Allan * & Guy Hemeric *
    Psych-Out! - 1968 - USA - d. Richard Rush - Ronald Stein (score) * & The Strawberry Alarm Clock *
    Sweet Charity - 1968 - USA - d. Bob Fosse - Cy Coleman *
    A Time To Sing - 1968 - USA - d. Arthur Dreifuss - Fred Karger & Hank Williams Jr. (score) **
    Angel, Angel, Down We Go - 1969 - USA - d. Robert Thom - Barry Mann * & Cynthia Weil * & Fred Karger (score)
    The Phynx - 1969 - USA - d. Lee H. Katzin - Mike Stoller *

  • Chapter 4: The 1970s

    Wild Expulsions

    Beyond the Valley of the Dolls - 1970 - USA - d. Russ Meyer William Loose (score) & Lynn Carey * & Paul Marshall * & Stu Phillips * & Bob Stone *
    The Music Lovers - 1970 - UK - d. Ken Russell - Andre Previn (score) & various pieces by Tchaikovsky **
    Zachariah - 1970 - USA - d. George Englund - Jimmy Haskell (score) * various songs *
    Red Psalm - 1971 - Hungary - d. Miklos Jancso - Tamas Cseh
    The Inner Scar - 1972 - France - d. Philippe Garrel - Nico * & John Cale *
    Nashville - 1975 - USA - d. Robert Altman - Various songs */**
    Never Too Young To Rock - 1975 - UK - d. Dennis Abey - Various songs */**
    That’s The Way Of The World - 1975 - USA - d. Sig Shore - Earth Wind & Fire *
    Lipstick - 1976 - USA - d. Lamont Johnson - Michel Polnaref
    Moses and Aaron - 1976 Germany Jean Marie Straub & Danielle Huillet - Arnold Schoenberg **
    Saturday Night Fever - 1977 - USA - d. John Badham - The Bee Gees * & David Shire (score)
    Cotton Candy - 1978 - USA - d. Ron Howard - Joe Renzetti * (score) & Charles Martin Smith
    Fingers - 1978 - USA - d. James Toback - Various **
    Jubilee - 1978 - UK - d. Derek Jarman - Various songs *
    Rockers - 1978 - Jamaica - d. Theodoros Bafaloukos - Various songs *
    Sextette - 1978 - USA - d. Ken Hughes - Artie Butler *
    All That Jazz - 1979 - USA - d. Bob Fosse - Ralph Burns (score) & Peter Allen *
    Rock ’n’ Roll High School - 1979 - USA - d. Allan Arkush - The Ramones
    Roller Boogie - 1979 - USA - d. Mark Lester - Craig Safan (score) & Bob Esty *

  • Chapter 5: The 1980s

    Embarrassed Stylings

    The Apple - 1980 - USA - d. Menahem Golan - Coby Rechy * & Iris Recht *
    Can’t Stop the Music - 1980 - USA - d. Nancy Walker - Jacques Morali *
    Driller Killer - 1980 - USA - d. Abel Ferrara - Joe Delia *
    Fame - 1980 - USA - d. Alan Parker - Giorgio Moroder & various songs *
    The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle - 1980 - UK - d. Julien Temple - The Sex Pistols *
    The Jazz Singer - 1980 - USA - d. Richard Fleischer Neil Diamond * & Leonard Rosenman (score)
    Pepi, Luci, Bom - 1980 - Spain - d. Pedro Almodovar - Various songs *
    Popeye - 1980 - USA - d. Robert Altman - Harry Nilsson
    Pennies From Heaven - 1981 - USA - d. Herbert Ross - Various songs **
    Zoot Suit - 1981 - USA - d. Luis Valdez - Shorty Rogers (AM) & Daniel Valdez (score) & Lalo Guerrero *
    Disco Dancer - 1982 - India - d. Babbah Subhash - Babbi Lahiri *
    Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains - 1982 - USA - d. Lou Adler - Barry Ford * & Steve Jones * & Paul Cook *
    One From The Heart - 1982 - USA - d. Francis Ford Coppola - Crystal Gaye * & Tom Waites *
    Wild Style - 1982 - USA - d. Charlie Ahearn - Chris Stein (score) & Fab 5 Freddy (score) & various songs */**
    The Eighties - 1983 - Belgium - d. Chantal Akerman - Marc Herouet
    Flashdance - 1983 - USA - d. Adrian Lyne - Giorgio Moroder *
    The Role - 1983 - India - d. Shyram Benegal - Various songs *
    Hard Rock Zombies - 1984 - USA - d. Krishna Shah - Paul Sabu * & Tony Visconti *
    Purple Rain - 1984 - USA - d. Albert Magnoli - Michael Colombier (score) & John L. Nelson (score) & Prince *
    A Chorus Line - 1985 - USA - d. Richard Attenborough - Marvin Hamlisch *
    Keep Up Your Right - 1985 - France - d. Jean Luc Godard - Les Rita Mitsouko **
    Absolute Beginners - 1986 - UK - d. Julien Temple - David Bowie * & Gil Evans (score)
    Sid & Nancy - 1986 - USA - d. Alex Cox - Various songs **
    Trick Or Treat - 1986 - USA - d. Charles Martin Smith - Christopher Young (score) & Fast Eddie Clarke *
    Voyage of the Rock Aliens - 1987 - USA - d. James Fargo - Jack White * & Mark Spiro (lyrics)
    Moonwalker - 1988 - USA - d. John Blashfield & Colin Chilvers & Jerry Kramer - Michael Jackson * & Bruce Broughton (score)
    Book of Days - 1989 - USA - d. Meredith Monk - Meredith Monk *
    Tap - 1989 - USA - d. Nick Castle - James Newton Howard

  • Chapter 6: The 1990s

    Musicological Meltdowns

    Without You I’m Nothing - 1990 - USA - d. John Boscovich Patrice Rushen (score) & Sandra Bernhard * & various songs */**
    Life on a String - 1991 - China - d. Chen Kaige - Xiao-Song Qu & Chen Kaige *
    Shout - 1991 - USA - d. Jeffery Hornaday - Edelman Randy (score) & various songs **
    Black River - 1993 - Australia - d. Kevin Lucas - Peter Schulz **
    An Independent Life - 1993 - d. Russia Vitaly Kanevsky - Boris Rytchcov
    Swing Kids - 1993 - USA - d. Thomas Carter - James Horner (score) & various songs **
    Farinelli - 1994 - Germany - d. Gérard Corbieu - Riccardo Broschi ** & various classical & baroque pieces **
    Empire Records - 1995 - USA - d. Allan Moyle - Various songs **
    Showgirls - 1995 - USA - d. Paul Verhoven - David A. Stewart (score) & various songs **
    Georgia - 1995 - USA - d. Ulu Grossbard - Steven J.Sole
    Karan Arrjun - 1995 - India - d. Rakesh Roshan - Indivar * & Rajesh Roshan *
    Billy's Holiday - 1995 - Australia - d. Richard Wherret - Peter Cobbin (score) & various songs **
    Grace of My Heart - 1996 - USA - d. Allison Anders - Various collaborations *
    Same Old Song - 1997 - France - d. Alan Resnais - Bruno Fontaine (score) & various songs **
    Gadjo Dilo - 1997 - France - d. Tony Gatlif - Tony Gatlif (score) & various folk songs **
    The Hole - 1998 - Taiwan - d. Ming-Liang Tsai - Grace Chang
    Little Voice - 1998 - UK - d. Mark Herman - John Altman (score) & various songs **
    Sugar Town - 1998 - USA - d. Allison Anders - Larry Klein & various songs *
    Velvet Goldmine - 1998 - USA/UK - d. Todd Haynes - Carter Burwell & various songs **/*
    Black Cat, White Cat - 1998 - FR Yugoslavia - d. Emir Kusturica - Vojislav Aralica * & Nele Karajilic * & Dejan Sparavalo *
    Music Of The Heart 1999 - USA - d. Wes Craven Mason Daring (score) & various songs **

  • Chapter 7: The 2000s

    Impossible Realities

    Almost Famous - 2000 - USA - d. Cameron Crowe - Cameron Crowe & Nancy Wilson & Wilson, Ann & Peter Frampton & Mike McCready
    Bring it On - 2000 - USA - d. Payton Reed - Various songs **
    Coyote Ugly - 2000 - USA - d. David McNally - Trevor Horn (score) & Dianne Warren * & various songs **
    The Dancer - 2000 - France - d. Frederick Garson - Pascal Lafa (score) & various songs **
    Duets - 2000 - USA - d. Bruce Paltrow - Various songs **
    High Fidelity - 2000 - USA - d. Stephen Frears - Various songs **
    Glitter - 2001 - USA - d. Vondie Curtis-Hall - Terence Blanchard (score) & Mariah Carey * & Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis *
    Hedwig & The Angry Inch - 2001 - Canada - d. John Cameron Mitchell - Stephen Trask *
    Carmen: A Hip Hopera - 2001 - USA - d. Robert Townsend - Kip Collins (score) & Sekani Williams *
    Beijing Rocks - 2001 - China - d. Mabel Cheung
    Moulin Rouge! - 2001 - USA - d. Baz Lurhman - Craig Armstrong (score) & various songs */**
    Rock Star - 2001 - USA - d. Stephen Herek - Trevor Rabin (score) & various songs **
    Laurel Canyon - 2002 - USA - d. Lisa Cholodenko - Craig Wedren (score) & various songs */**
    The Cheetah Girls - 2003 - USA - d. Oz Scott - Various songs *
    School Of Rock - 2003 - USA - d. Richard Linklater - Various songs **
    Bride & Prejudice - 2004 - UK - d. Gurinder Ghadha - Craig Pruess (score) & Anu Malick *
    Romance & Cigarettes - 2005 - USA - d. John Turturro - Various songs **
    High School Musical - 2006 - USA - d. Kenny Ortega - Various songs *
    Step Up - 2006 - USA - d. Anne Fletcher - Various songs */**
    Alvin And The Chipmunks - 2007 - USA - d. Tim Hill - Ali Dee * & various songs */**
    The 27 Club - 2008 - USA - d. Erica Dunton - Sodium Kierkegaard *
    Hipsters - 2008 - Russia - d. Valeriy Todorovskiy - Konstatin Meladze * Valeriy Todorovskiy (lyrics)
    Semi-Pro - 2008 - USA - d. Kent Alterman - Various songs **
    Bran Nue Dae - 2009 - Australia - d. Rachel Perkins - Jimmy Chi *
    The Mark Pease Experience - 2009 - USA - d. Todd Louiso - Christophe Beck (score) & Charlie Smalls * & various songs */**
    No One Knows About Persian Cats - 2009 - Iran - d. Bahman Ghobadi - Various band songs */**
    The Soloist - 2009 - USA - d. Joe Wright - Dario Marianelli (score) & various songs ** & pieces by Beethoven **

  • Chapter 8: The 2000s

    Analytic Spectacles

    Dancer in the Dark - 2000 - Denmark - d. Lars Von Trier - Bjork
    Electric Dragon 8,000 V - 2000 - Japan - d. Sogo Ishii - Hiroyuki Onagawa
    O, Brother Where Art Thou? - 2000 - USA - d. Joel and Ethan Coen - T. Bone Burnette * & Carter Burwell (score) & various songs **
    Tears of the Black Tiger - 2000 - Thailand - d. Wisit Sasangatieng - Amornpong Methakunawat
    Wild Zero - 2000 Japan - d. Tetsuro Takeuchi - Various songs *
    All About Lily Chou-Chou - 2001 - Japan - d. Shunji Iwai - Takeshi Kobayashi
    Josie & The Pussycats - 2001 - USA - d. Harry Elfont & Deborah Kaplan - John Frizell & Anna Waronker + & various songs **
    Monrak Transistor - 2001 - Thailand - d. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang - Amornbhong Methakunavudh * & Chatchai Pongprapaphan *
    Silence We’re Rolling - 2001 - Egypt - d. Youssef Chahine - Omar Khairat (score) & Gamal Békhit * & Kaushar Mostapha *
    8 Women - 2002 - France - d. Francois Ozon - Krishna Levy (score) & various songs **
    Drumline - 2002 - USA - d. Stone III Charles - John Powell (score) & Dallas Austin ** & various songs *
    Karmen Gei - 2002 - Senegal - d. Joseph Gai Ramak - Julien Jouga * & David Murray * & Doudou N'diaye Rose *
    The Pianist - 2002 - France - d. Roman Polanski - Various classical pieces **
    Things Behind The Sun - 2002 - USA - d. Alison Anders - Sonic Youth (score) & various songs **
    Together With You - 2002 China - d. Kaige Chen - Various classical pieces **
    Dam Street - 2003 - China - d. Yu Li - Sijun Kiu (score) & various songs **
    The Saddest Music In The World - 2003 - Canada - d. Guy Maddin - Christopher Dedrick (score) Jerome Kern ** & Oscar Hammerstein II **
    Clean - 2004 - France - d. Olivia Assayas - David Roback * & Brian Eno **
    Brothers Of The Head - 2005 - UK - d. Keith Fulton + Louis Pepe - Clive Langer *
    Last Days - 2005 - USA - d. Gus Van Sandt - Various songs **
    Linda Linda Linda - 2005 - Japan - d. Yamashita Nobuhiro - Various songs **
    Three Times - 2005 - Taiwan - d. Hsia-Hsien Hou - Various songs **
    Princess Raccoon - 2005 - Japan - d. Seijun Suzuki - Michiru Oshima *
    The Band’s Visit - 2007 - Egypt - d. Eran Kolorin - Habib Shadah
    Control - 2007 - UK - d. Anton Corbin - Joy Division **
    I’m Not There - 2007 - USA - d. Todd Haynes - Various Bob Dylan songs ** & cover versions *
    Sweeny Todd - 2007 - USA - d. Tim Burton - Stephen Sondheim **
    Me Two - 2008 - France - d. Bruno Lavaine + Nicolas Charlet - Nicolas Errèra * & Nicolas + Bruno (lyrics)
    Melodrama Habibi - 2008 - France - d. Hany Tamba - Khaled Mouzanar * & various songs **

  • Chapter 9: The 2010s

    Gaudy Revisions

    1st Night - 2010 - UK - d. Christopher Menaul - Mozart opera **
    Burlesque - 2010 - USA - d. Steve Antin - Christophe Beck (score) & various songs */**
    Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life - 2010 - France - d. Joann Sfar - Various Serge Gainsbourg songs **
    The Runaways - 2010 - USA - d. Floria Sigismondi - Various Runaways' songs **
    Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll - 2010 - UK - d. Matt Whitecross - Various Ian Drury songs **
    Chicken With Plums - 2011 - France - d. Vincent Paronnaud + Marjane Satrapi Olivier Bernet (score)
    Rock Star - 2011 India - d. Imitiaz Ali - Various songs **
    Electrick Children - 2012 - USA - d. Rebecca Thomas - Various songs **
    Joyful Noise - 2012 - USA - d. Todd Graff - Various songs **
    Les Miserables - 2012 - USA - d. Tom Hooper - Claude-Michel Schönberg * & Herbert Kretzmer (lyrics) & Alain Boublil (lyrics)
    Pitch Perfect - 2012 - USA - d. Jason Moore - Various songs **
    Rock Of Ages - 2012 - USA - d. Adam Shankman - Various songs **
    CBGB - 2013 - USA - d. Randall Miller - Various songs **
    Inside Llewyn Davis - 2013 - USA - d. Joel & Ethan Coen - Various songs **
    Metallica Through The Never - 2013 - USA - d. Nimrod Antal - Various Metallica songs *
    Frank - 2014 - USA - d. Lenny Abrahamson - Domhnall Gleeson *
    Tokyo Tribe - 2014 - Japan - d. Sion Sono - Various songs */**
    Whiplash - 2014 - USA - d. Damian Chazelle - Justin Hurwitz * & various songs */**
    Jem And The Holograms - 2015 - USA - d. John M. Chu - Various songs */**
    Office - 2015 - Hong Kong - d. Johnnie To - Fai Young Chan (score) & Ta-Yu Lo * & Xi Lin (lyrics)
    The Dancer - 2016 - France - d. Stéphanie Di Giusto - Max Richter (score) & various songs by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis **
    Nico, 1988 - 2017 - Italy/Belgium - d. Susanna Nicchiarelli - Various Nico songs **
    American Satan - 2017 - USA - d. Ash Avildsen - Jonathan Davis * & Nicolas O'Toole *
    Patti Cake$ - 2017 - USA - d. Geremy Jasper - Jason Binnick * & Geremy Jasper (lyrics)