Film Music Moment of the Day: Johnny Meets Billie in Michael Mann's Public Enemies

Resplendent with rich lines, textures, and sounds, Michael Mann's Public Enemies is a feast for the senses, and at the center of this feast is the gaze John Dillinger (played by Johnny Depp) lavishes upon Billie Frechette (played by Marianne Cotillard)--one that more than lives up to the real life Frechette's description:

"There was something in those eyes that I will never forget. They were piercing and electric, yet there was an amused carefree twinkle in them too. They met my eyes and held me hypnotized for an instant."

Depp absolutely nails that characterization and gives us a Dillinger so transfixed by Freschette that he allows himself to be led out onto a dance floor shortly after meeting her, despite not knowing how to dance. There they're enveloped by an especially velvety rendition of "Bye Bye Blackbird" by Diana Krall, and it's one of the many moments in the film that draws you right into the action, making the moment seem both immediate and iconic.

Mann has never been afraid to let music take over a scene, and in Public Enemies does so with his usual panache. Another standout is Otis Taylors' "Ten Million Slaves" as a backdrop for the scene in which Melvin Purvis (played by Christian Bale) pursues and guns down bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd. Mann rounds out the soundtrack with a little Billie Holiday and Blind Willie Johnson, and even if Coen-esque moments of greatness are never quite achieved via the music, Mann--like Dillinger himself--has style to burn, and has given us a memorable portrait of a charismatic criminal.