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July 30, 2008
Palimpsests
At the test screening last week, I tried something I'd been mulling over since way before we even shot the movie: opening with an old-fashioned musical overture. No images, just music for a few minutes, to put audiences in the mood. I don't think anyone's done this since Lars von Trier opened Dancer In The Dark with a black screen and selections of the score (that black screen would be replaced with impressionist splashes of color upon the theatrical release).
This idea came about as a result of wanting to include Bill Callahan's song Palimpsest in a movie that had no place for traditional song in its soundtrack. But this song - I listened to it a lot in the months before we shot. Its words, its arrangement, its very texture seemed to reflect what I wanted this movie to be about. It feels how I want it to feel, it sounds the way I want it to look. I also love the psychological implications of the title (which is on its own terms a wonderful word, scarcely altered from its Greek derivative). Literally defined, a palimpsest is a document that has been written over but which belies traces of its former contents. A would-be tabula rasa.
Here is the song. Close your eyes and listen to it:
And now, in a way, you've basically seen the film. Which is part of the reason I decided that I wouldn't push this experiment past the test screening process. The first five minutes of the movie are essentially an overture all by themselves. A vorspiel to the opening movement. A beginning before the beginning.
Currently on repeat is Bonnie Prince Billy's new record, Lie Down In The Light. The third track, a duet entitled So Everyone, is making me swoon.
Posted by David Lowery at July 30, 2008 4:36 PM
Comments
I love the song. Great idea.
His contribution to the feel of Dead Man's Shoes was particularly fine.
Posted by: Ricky Shane at July 31, 2008 1:14 PM
In fact, so was Bonnie Prince Billy's!
Posted by: Ricky Shane at July 31, 2008 1:15 PM
Use the prelude. End it before the vocals.
Posted by: mutinyco at July 31, 2008 4:10 PM