Grab a Kleenex for this one. In this scene from Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990), Juliet Stevenson plays an amateur pianist named Nina whose boyfriend recently died. As Nina is grieving at her piano, she’s imagining her late boyfriend (a professional cellist) playing his duet part in Bach’s Sonata No.3 for Cello & Piano. Suddenly, Nina […]

Some days, as an artist, I need to be reminded why I work so hard to match the right piece of music with the right visual. These movie clips – all with heart-melting music inseparable from the story – are the reminder I need.  Please enjoy: Film: Finding Nemo Release Date: 2003 Composer: Thomas Newman […]

A gnarly industrial-pop song called “Guns Blazing” by Cobra Ramone was used to underscore the most erotic scene I have ever witnessed in a movie where everyone’s clothes stay on. In the 2013 independent film All the Wrong Reasons, our main female character (played by director Gia Milani) has a crush on a male co-worker. […]

It is my hope that James Horner finally gets a chance to catch his breath and look down into the millions of hearts he has permanently marked with his gorgeous music.

Francois Girad, director of The Red Violin (1998) starring Samuel L Jackson, originally wanted to use period music from each of the five historical periods through which the story subject travels. Pulitzer Prize winning composer John Corigliano disagreed and instead pushed for this single, compelling theme to follow the instrument through the story: I once watched Corigliano […]

In 2000, I was in Las Vegas for one night to play a gig with a cover band. We were to follow Bill Cosby at Caesar’s Palace for a corporate client whom I can’t remember. Of course I can’t tell you everything that happened in Vegas, but I can tell you the next day we […]

This 30 second usage of  the Lyle Lovett song “M-O-N-E-Y” at the The Firm starring Tom Cruise was a brilliant directorial choice on the part of Sydney Pollack. It encapsulates three story themes at the same time: 1) A wife setting the mood for a romantic evening with her husband 2) Their new home in […]

It’s hard to know whether the dialog between an auditioning Johnny Cash and legendary record producer Sam Phillips depicted in the film Walk the Line actually took place. Nonetheless, the speech Phillips gives is profound if you’re a struggling musician (*claimed under Fair use): I’ve spent hundreds of hours at gigs or in the studio […]

The 2003 Pixar film Finding Nemo illustrates a rarely used directorial technique wherein the soundtrack, composed by Thomas Newman, intentionally drowns out dialog between characters that would normally be too important to miss. Near the end of the film, there’s an emotional scene where Nemo hears stories about the brave acts his father is doing […]