the future of cinema
in high fidelity there is a very nice scene where the record store guy puts on a cd and everyone starts nodding their heads in enjoyment. then one of the customers asks the very same question we've all been thinking: what is the name of this song? 'the song' says the record store guy 'is called dry the rain by the beta band and you can find it on their album the three eps'. the customer then thanks the record store guy, and says again what we've all been thinking: this song is a really good song. 'yes' says the record store guy 'but its actually better than good. its great'.
i never pay attention to dialogue in movies. i'm more of a music guy. usually i find it very rude and annoying when a character talks over a song that i like, but this was one of the rare cases where i found a movie's dialogue to be both interesting and useful, saving me from having to keep watching until the end for the credits. now knowing the name of the song, i could drive to jb hifi to buy the cd to listen without interruptions in the comforts of my car.
imagine if every movie was like this. 'hey whats this song?' 'oh its X singing Y from their famous album Z'. that would be so helpful and useful to me. imagine if at the end of salt life, the weird guy said 'okay everyone, i think its time to celebrate with a bit of popular music. this song is called "its a murder on the dance floor" by sophie alice baxter and it just so happens to be one of my favourite songs. alright.. the cd is in, ive queued up the track, ok, and we're ready to go. watch out everyone... its dancing time!'
it would have also been good in salt life if they had made him not be dancing in the nude. it was very distracting. now whenever i hear the song, a song i previously liked, i have to think about the weird guy shaking his willy around the house and its very unfair. in fact, i think that whenever they play a song in a movie they should just make the screen go black. then the audience will experience the music as it was intended to be experienced: with the ears, not the eyes.
but these days people are unenlightened. they would not be able to handle a blank screen for even three minutes. movies will have to take a differentiated approach. the character will have to turn to the camera and say 'attention please. for those in the audience who would like the pure and unadulterated audio experience, please kindly close your eyes. for those of you with difficulties, we will supply you with some ancilliary visual stimulation'. the screen will then play various animations of sliding block puzzles, slot machines, and flasks of colourful liquids being mixed together. then when the song finishes, the character will tell the audience to open their eyes and the movie will resume until it is time to hear the next piece of music.
this may sound dumb or impractical, but i strongly believe it is the future of cinema. we must learn to take music as an art form seriously, as seriously as we do movies.