Recently, I rented both AMERICAN OUTLAWS and A KNIGHT'S TALE. The use of contemporary songs in these films was dreadful. Moby in AMERICAN OUTLAWS and all the songs in KNIGHT'S TALE, even Bowie. I guess they are trying to build on the success of the revised ROMEO AND JULIET which came out in the 90s and was full of contemporary songs. I suppose that attempt somewhat worked in my opinion, but I think it is only because it was Shakespeare and Shakespeare can be retold to fit any era really, as exampled by RICHARD III and the recent O. Some are better than others, obviously, but my point is I think this works a little easier when it's Shakespeare.

As far as an orchrestra seeming out of place as well, that style of music does not jar us out of the world that the film is trying to create as badly. While an orchestra might be anchronistic to the times, so are film cameras and movie crews.

Modern music in period pieces clashes with our sensibilities and preconceptions and makes it harder for us to accept the world the director is trying to create.

As Probable says, an orchestra is often just as anachronistic in a historical setting as a jazz or rock ensemble anyway.

However, MWRuger is right to point out that the cinema audience has certain preconceptions when entering the cinema to view a movie with an historical setting and some effort should be made by the composer to correspond with those preconceptions. Indeed, the composer's aim should be partly to make the movie's agenda more accessible to the widest audience. To do this the judicious use of both contemporary stylistics and traditional orchestra is essential.

To this end, James Horner conjured up the perfect 'best of both worlds' score for BRAVEHEART.....a hugely entertaining movie with a tremendous and appropriate score.

Music is there for an audience, not the characters/actors in the film. It's a communicative symbol. While a film score should reflect upon a picture's rudiments, it must speak to an audience first and foremost.

Three James Horner scores--Braveheart, Glory, and Legends of the Fall--all negotiate the two tasks well.

However, I believe that Jerry Goldsmith's score for Hoosiers demonstrates most effectively how a composer can use popular/trendy musical language to underscore a period film and issue noteworthy musical commentary at the same time.

Could you imagine Conan with a techno score and a LL Cool J song? Or how about Lord of the Rings with nothing but Led Zepplin songs?

I have nothing against rock/pop/rap just keep it away from period pieces.

Directors that do this were droped on there heads as children.

dave

a wretched film (I guess it was supposed to be a satire....but don't satires say something?) with techno by Craig Armstrong.

I was watching the 1912 version of Cleopatra the other night on TMC and it was a restored version. Of course, they probably don't know what music should have been played, but they went with a vocal keening and drum machine score written for the restored film that jarred so badly with the image on the screen that I couldn't watch the movie.

I mean, I appreciate the fact that someone is restoring the old films, but what were they thinking? They could have just used a classical score that wouldn't have been so annoying. Silent films are hard enough to get into without adding a distracting score.

However, as much as I didn't like Cleopatra (1912) I had just the opposite feeling for Cleopatra (1934)with Claudette Colbert which ran right before. Very enjoyable. The score by Rudolph G. Kopp was intresting and when I tried to find other films that he might have scored that I had seen or heard I found none.

Does anyone know about this composer or the availability of his work?

Let it be said this way: if you are going to use anachronistic music in your films, do it consistently. A KNIGHT'S TALE wouldn't have been as troublesome if it were either all rock songs or all Burwell.

This was the same approached used in the vapid TV Miniseries Last Days of Pompei that was broadcast in 1984. There was a scene where Ned Beatty berates a gladiator like he was a football player as well as other deliberate anachronisms. I read an article in TV Guide where Peter Hunt, the director, said that he did it on purpose because people and culture really hasn’t changed much in 2000 years and this made it more accessible to the audience.

Rubbish!

I think a better film would be a tale about someone who is a modern knight, trying to hold to those virtues in a modern time that doesn’t really have room for such ideals. The entire concept of courtly love and fealty to a lord, in fact the medieval mindset, as we know it, encountering the modern world be very interesting if done right.

You could also do it ala Romeo + Juliet style and just tell the story with modern trappings.

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Originally posted by Lightborne:
I am curious though about completely successful attempts incorporating contemporary music (i.e. songs) into period pieces.

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EVER AFTER seemed to work....