Cameron Crowe Names His Top Ten Film-Music Moments

Showing a keen sense of pop and rock's rightful place in cinema, Cameron Crowe shares his favorite film-music moments with Empire Magazine. This is highly recommended reading whether you're a filmmaker or simply wanting to breathe life into your Netflix queue.

"A great movie doesn't need music to exist, and a wonderful song is already a perfect movie in your imagination. But sometimes the marriage works, and the result is an explosion, a memorable body rush that enhances both and rocks your soul along the way."

What makes a particular film-music moment stand out for Crowe? Here are a few worthy snippets:

• "The song is the opening brush stroke on a masterpiece...years later, just hearing [it] brings back the experience of the entire movie." (on John Schlesinger's use of Harry Nillson's "Everybody's Talking" in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy).

• "The version is immaculate, and the words and song plays largely on the listeners faces." (on Pedro Almodóvar's use of Tomas Mendez's song "'Cucurrucucu Paloma" in the 2002 film Talk to Her.

• "When it was over and lights came up, not a person budged. Like all great movies that create an environment, Once is a world you want to stay in. And the piano store scene...is that rarest thing in movies: the moment a couple falls in love, caught on film in real time." (on John Carney's use of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's 'Falling Slowly' in the 2006 film Once.)
  
  
• "...[B]ut this is perhaps his best song usage ever. [It] kicks off Harold and Maude with spare perfection...We meet Harold and he's about to hang himself...and the combination of this song and that scene makes for a soul-scratching introduction." (on Hal Ashby's use of Cat Stevens' "Don't Be Shy" in the 1971 film, Harold and Maude.)

And while there are two mentions of score among his picks, it's worth noting that one is a score written by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits (for his score to 1983's Local Hero). The other ("Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfiel from The Exorcist) was so eerily catchy that it actually found its way onto the pop charts after the release of the film--a rarity in instrumental score. These choices speak to a heightened awareness in Crowe's sense of film music; even his favorite scores are unusually relevant and/or connected to pop culture at large.