I can't listen to music with vocals while I'm writing. I guess the words bit of my brain is wired like a one-way radio and can only do traffic in or out. This week I've been leaning heavily on Hans Zimmer's scores for Inception and The Thin Red Line, which are both films in my all time top-something (I'd be more specific, but I'd only have to change it later).
Brilliant, but also ominous and brooding. So for a break yesterday I put on Zimmer's bouyant, shy love track from True Romance, You're So Cool.
And that reminded me of the best bit in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the unexpectedly emotional visit to the Art Institute Of Chicago. Moments of reflection and sadness are something that more recent zeitgeisty teen movies seem to have forgotten how to do. Or maybe with Barry Levinson and John Hughes the '80s was some kind of high watermark. Either way, this is one of my favourite scenes of forever.
The music is a cover of The Smiths' Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Dream Academy. The original was used in Pretty In Pink, which John Hughes had made right before Ferris Bueller - the Art Institute scene had initially used a different track, and had come after the parade sequence in the movie, but it tested poorly until it was re-jigged and re-scored.
