Is there anything more exhilarating than hearing a song in a movie for the first time and immediately falling in love with it? Your emotions add to the scene–you become a character, reacting to the music, it changes your life, and your perception of the film.
Christine gets extra geeky this week talking about diegetic and extradiegetic music, terms borrowed from film theory that describe whether the music is heard by the characters within the movie’s world (diegetic) or serves as an external soundtrack that only the audience hears (extradiegetic).
From one of her top 10 favorite soundtracks (don’t worry, the other nine will come up in future episodes), the–diegetic–song that Christine immediately fell in love with is “Yarom Bia” by the Iranian rock band Kiosk, featured in Ana Lily Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” – the coolest vampire movie ever.
Christina waxes nostalgic about “Hong Kong Garden” by Siouxsie and the Banshees, a track featured in Sofia Coppola’s dreamy, historically inaccurate “Marie Antoinette.”
The song itself, reworked for the film in an expansive orchestral arrangement, ties back to its roots—an homage to a London Chinese restaurant—and serves as a powerful reminder of music’s impact. Piss off, nazi assholes!
Stereothematica 