I expected the editors of IFC Rant to have a kind of Us/Them, We're Cool/You're Fools kind of attitude about Independent film and I wasn't wrong about that.

The editors (Eugene Hernandez, Anthony Kaufman, Andrea Meyer, Jacquelynn Schiller, and Erin Torneo) open the issue with a group discussion on the subject. Here are excerpts:

EH: There are so many different types of animation happening [in Waking Life] that the music actually becomes your guide to kind of carry you through.

AK: If you look at Hal Hartley or Tom Tykwer, filmmakers who compose their own soundtracks, they use music in the same way. I think with those people, no matter how musically ignorant I am, I'm aware of the music in their films. When I listen to a John Williams score, though, the only thing I notice is that it's schmaltzy.

EH: One of the things that Spielberg gets criticized for is his collaboration with John Williams. [Just which critics said this?] It's the first thing people pick up on when they hone in on Spielberg's sentimentality. I think when he uses music well in his films, it's really strong, but when it's not really strong, it can be really cheesy.

AM: Whether you classify that as using music well or not, it's still manipulative.

EH: Of course. But film is manipulative. Anytime you put music into a film, you're trying to enhance the scene in some way. Maybe it's not as overtly manipulative as trying to get someone to cry, but there's a whole range of emotions that you can try to elicit from your audience, and the minute you add a soundtrack you are trying to affect the mood of a scene.

[The conversation turns to songs in film...]

EH: Radiohead remains one of my favorite bands...because their music evokes so much imagery. And they have consciously experimented with that by creating visuals, or commissioning visuals, to go along with their music.

ET: There used to be a tradition of scoring a film where you'd have one song...like "Moon River" in Breakfast at Tiffany's. It's different now. When a band like Belle & Sebastian scores Todd Solondz's film, it adds a whole different layer.

AK: Solondz uses score ironically.

EH: Isn't that as manipulative as John Williams and Steven Spielberg?

AK: Maybe.

EH: The process is the same. It's just that maybe John Williams' music carries more baggage because when you hear music that has this kind of flowing epic sound to it, it takes you out of the movie more because you start thinking about how you're being influenced. But a movie that uses a song you like affects your experience of the film in a different way.

The rest of the IFC issue goes onto discuss Indie and Hip Hop bands that have contributed music to Indie films and directors like Tarantino, Paul Anderson, and Wes Anderson who use old songs on their soundtracks for specific associations. The only regular film music to get mentioned again or any film composer to get any kudos at all in the issue is, not surprisingly, Philip Glass.

Finally what turns up at the end of the zine are articles about musicians becoming filmmakers and film producers (!) and how they view film music. I end this post with some comments from Michael Stipe of REM who produced Being John Malkovich:

"The best score in one that you don't even know is there. When people depend too heavily on music to lift or float or alter the dynamic of a scene, you have to question their abilities as a filmmaker. Although a lot of people in this business say that about voiceovers too. I don't agree. That doesn't bother me, the music thing can."

So, have the lunatics taken over the asylum and re-decorated it with Sonic Wallpaper? Or, is there a great positive here in the current state of things?

"A John Williams score... is schmaltzy." I'm not even going to touch that. Obviously the person saying that has been abused as a child. Or is a Satanist.

"Williams' music takes you out of the film?" What!?!?!?!? I have always thought music enhanced the film to the extent of it being an integral part of the images and sounds you were experiencing. Music actually draws me further into the world of the particular film, expecially if the music is good.

These people must be losers who think only songs work in film. They must not be allowed to have children.

Only a pathetic video-drone non-music-lover could say something like that. That's like appreciating silent movies because the imagery evokes so much music.