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Referências
YOUNGER, R. Song in contemporary film noir. Films in Review, [s. l.], v. 45, n. 7/8, p. 48, 1994. Disponível
em: <http://search-ebscohost-com.ez74.periodicos.capes.gov.br/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=aph&AN=9410315421&lang=pt-br&site=ehost-live>. Acesso em: 24 set. 2019.
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SONG IN CONTEMPORARY FILM NOIR 

Music can be used to affect us in many ways that visuals cannot. Change in tempo and form
foreshadow a shift in mood or plot. It has become an essential tool for the director
Ever since Al Jolson ushered in the age of the talkies with The Jazz Singer in 1927, music has been
a significant element in film. Composers such as Dimitri Tiomkin, Bernard Herrmann, John Williams
and Ry Cooder, among others, have enriched countless soundtracks with their orchestral scores.
Songs, however, with their added element of lyrical text, have become increasingly important in
modern film. Particularly because of the psychological undercurrent found in many films noir, songs
have been used to foreshadow events, develop theme, further plot, signal a character's mood and
underscore irony. In Ridley Scott's Someone To Watch Over Me, Tom Berenger plays a detective
assigned to protect a murder witness played by Mimi Rogers. Through song we can sense the rift
that develops in Berenger and Lorraine Bracco's marriage even before it occurs on screen. The film
opens at a party celebrating Berenger's promotion to detective, with couples dancing to "Suspicious
Minds." Suspicion will prove to be one of the overriding emotions in the film: after the murder,
everyone is suspect. Bracco later questions her husband's fidelity, as do his fellow officers, and there
is an overall suspicion of when the murderer will attempt to kill Rogers. Also, in the opening scene,
the couples dance to Johnny Ray's song "Cry," whose lyric "When your sweetheart sends a letter of
goodbye," foreshadows the trouble that will descend on the film's two married couples. Berenger and
Bracco separate during his period of infidelity and his partner, Tommy, is seriously wounded. In both
instances the wives are left distraught and crying.

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In Harold Becker's Sea Of Love, songs are masterfully used to develop theme, further the plot and
signal the main character's mood. The title song, a 50's R&B classic by The Platters, is used as a link
throughout the entire film, beginning with the first scene when we hear the record playing while a
murder is committed. The record, we later learn, is always played by Ellen Barkin's estranged
husband while he commits his murders, and it is the only clue Al Pacino's detective character has to
solve the case. After Pacino notices the "Sea Of Love" record among Barkin's collection, he begins
to suspect her of the crime. But, because of his attraction to Barkin, Pacino ignores his instincts. The
song has sentimental significance for Pacino, serving to remind him of his youth and happier times,
and causing him to question his bachelor ways. John Goodman's impromptu sing-along performance
of the song in a cafeteria adds an ironic twist, and it is somewhat unsettling to hear the song, so
closely associated with the murderer at large, treated so casually. At Goodman's daughter's wedding,
the band plays a tacky version of Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust."a not so subtle comment on
the most recent murder, and a foreshadowing of Goodman's own infidelity. In addition, the aquatic
imagery of "Sea Of Love" supplies an important film noir icon, and helps to sustain a bleak,
pessimistic mood.

In addition to Sea Of Love, songs are used in several other films as running motifs, changing their
tempo and form to signal a change in mood and plot. An excellent example of this can be found in
the use of "Melancholy Baby" in Fritz Lang's 1945 film noir classic, Scarlet Street. From the opening
credits, where the cheery strains of the song give no hint of the road to hell Edward G. Robinson's
character will take, to the thunderous Wagnerian finale, the song is heard in numerous versions,
each one more emotional than the last. Even though it is always heard as an instrumental, the mere
title evokes a potentially dark mood.

The same use of a key song can also be found in Someone To Watch Over Me. The title song,
played over the beginning and end credits in two separate versions (with male and female singers
respectively), is also heard as an instrumental in typical noir late-night jazz style. The multiple
meanings of the song relate to the principal characters--Berenger, Bracco and Rogers--who are all in
need of protection.

The use of song in Dick Richards' Farewell My Lovely reveals the characters' mood in ways mere
dialogue could not. In the film, an older Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum) visits Jessi Florian (Sylvia
Miles) to help him locate the mysterious Velma Valensky. During their meeting, Florian sings Marlowe
a song from her old burlesque act, the words belying the mood of the depressed woman: "I'm blue all
day Monday/Still blue all day Tuesday." Mitchum sings the second verse, the melancholy of the
song's lyric equally suited to his over the hill condition.

The jukebox, a symbol of modern music and atmosphere, figures significantly in several films. In
Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour, the main character, a musician, hears one of his old songs played on a
jukebox in a late-night cafe. The upbeat big band music, evoking the memory of happier times,
angers him. Later, as he begins his slow psychological breakdown, his deteriorating mental state is
evident in the increasingly discordant music he plays on the piano. In Jacques Tourneur's Out Of The
Past, Joe Steffano selects an upbeat, big band tune from the jukebox of a roadside cafe. The song,
which evokes a cosmopolitan, nightclub atmosphere, sounds glaringly out of place in this quaint
afternoon setting, similar to the way Steffano in his trenchcoat and hat seems also out of place.

In Sea Of Love a song playing on a jukebox is used to supply irony. In a scene midway through the
film, Al Pacino enters a bar where a jukebox is playing Bobby Darin's version of "Beyond The Sea."
Yet Pacino's character shows no recognition of the tune, and the song's lyric "Somewhere beyond
the sea/somewhere waiting for me," underscores how deep into the "Sea Of Love" with Ellen Barkin's
character, the film's femme fatale, he has drifted.
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In Blue Velvet, director David Lynch uses popular songs to emphasize his cynical, dark view of
reality, achieving a particularly potent originality by juxtaposing timeless pop classics with extremely
brutal scenes. The Bobby Vinton version of the title song evokes the 1950's, an era whose
wholesome images and ethics are parodied and questioned by the opening montage of a
whitewashed fence and strikingly vivid garden flowers splayed against a surreal blue sky.

The notion of dreams--indeed, whether the entire film Blue Velvet is a dream--is developed by the
predominant use of Roy Orbison's song "In Dreams." The song is first introduced in a memorably
bizarre scene in which Ben (Dean Stockwell) lip syncs the lyric with a torchlight eerily illuminating his
face. The lyric "In dreams I walk with you/In dreams I talk to you" has multiple meanings and refers to
the desire felt by all the central characters: Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini) longs for her kidnapped child
and husband; Frank (Dennis Hopper) and Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) are dependent on Dorothy; and
Sandy (Laura Dern) is attracted to Jeffrey. The ironic use of the song rises to an intense crescendo
when, with the song blaring from a car tape deck, Frank gives Jeffrey a violent lipsticked kiss while a
spaced out, overweight go-go girl dances on the hood of the car. The lyric of the song is also referred
to later when Sandy asks Jeffrey, "What happened to my dreams?"

In addition to classic icons, songs have become part of many directors' lexicon. Music, which plays
upon our emotions mysteriously, and lyrics, which can be explanatory, oblique or ironic, can be used
to affect us in ways that visuals cannot. Aside from their mere entertainment value, songs have
proven to be a powerful element in the rich art of film noir.

PHOTO: Robert Mitchum in Farewell, My Lovely, 1975.

PHOTO: Tom Berenger and Mimi Rogers in Someone To Watch Over Me, 1987.

~~~~~~~~
By Richard Younger

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