UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Music As a Procedural
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Music as a Procedural Motive in the Filmmaking of Darren Aronofsky, Sofia Coppola, and Paul Thomas Anderson A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Music by Meghan Joyce Tozer Committee in charge: Professor Stefanie Tcharos, Chair Professor Robynn Stilwell Professor David Paul Professor Derek Katz September 2016 The dissertation of Meghan Joyce Tozer is approved. __________________________________________ Robynn Stilwell __________________________________________ Derek Katz __________________________________________ David Paul __________________________________________ Stefanie Tcharos (Committee Chair) June 2016 Music as a Procedural Motive in the Filmmaking of Darren Aronofsky, Sofia Coppola, and Paul Thomas Anderson Copyright © 2016 by Meghan Joyce Tozer iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are a great many people whose time, expertise, and support made this dissertation possible. First, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Stefanie Tcharos. The impact of your patience and knowledge was only outweighed, in the process of writing this dissertation, by the examples you have set for me in the work you do and, frankly, the life you lead. My life will be forever improved because I have had you as a mentor and role model. Dr. Robynn Stilwell, thank you for taking the time to participate in this project so wholeheartedly, for giving me your valuable advice, and for blazing the proverbial trail for women film music scholars everywhere. Drs. Dave Paul and Derek Katz, thank you for the years of guidance you provided as I have developed as a scholar. I want to thank my colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara – Emma Parker, Linda Shaver-Gleason, Sasha Metcalf, Scott Dirkse, Vincent Rone, Michael Vitalino, Shannon McCue, Jacob Adams, Michael Joiner, and, I am sure, others – for your careful feedback during workshops, in-person and online, as well as for your comradery and friendship throughout our years together. On a personal level, I need to thank my parents, Dr. Mary Joyce and John Joyce, my sister, Katie, and my brother, Brian, for believing that I can do anything and for always being sources of comfort and advice. I am so, so lucky to have been raised in this family. And to my new family, David Tozer, thank you for being such an incredibly kind, fun, devoted husband and partner. Without your commitment, hard work, and support, I would not have been able to write this dissertation or complete my Ph.D. Thank you also to my little writing buddy, Phillip, for sitting by my side and encouraging me to do my best. iv VITA OF MEGHAN JOYCE TOZER June 2016 EDUCATION Bachelor of Arts in Music / English and American Literature and Language, Harvard University, June 2008 (cum laude; magna cum laude for Honors Thesis) Master of Music in Voice, University of California, Santa Barbara, June 2011 Doctor of Philosophy in Music, University of California, Santa Barbara, June 2016 PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT 2008-2009: Editorial Administrator, Alfred Music Publishing 2010-2013: Teaching Assistant, Department of Music, University of California, Santa Barbara Summer 2012, Summer 2013: Teaching Associate, Department of Music, University of California, Santa Barbara 2013-2014: Program Coordinator, Arts for Humanity! 2013-2016: Editorial Assistant, Cambridge Opera Journal 2013-2016: Founder and Director, The UnSlut Project (as Emily Lindin, pen name) 2016-present: Executive Director, For Goodness Sake (as Emily Linidn, pen name) PUBLICATIONS “Mixing Punk Rock, Classical, and New Sounds in Film Music: An Interview with Brian Reitzell,” in The Palgrave Handbook of Sound Design and Music in Screen Media: Integrated Soundtracks , eds. Liz Greene and Danijela Kulezic-Wilson (London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2016). UnSlut: A Diary and a Memoir (Zest Books, 2015). AWARDS Special Regents Fellowship, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2009-2014 Stanley Krebs Prize in Musicology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2011 Best Documentary for UnSlut: A Documentary Film, California Women’s Film Festival, 2016 Award for Feminism in Film for UnSlut: A Documentary Film, Women’s Independent Film Festival, 2016 Honorable Mention for Best Documentary for UnSlut: A Documentary Film, Cleveland International Film Festival, 2016 FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Musicology Studies in Film Music with Professors Stefanie Tcharos and Robynn Stilwell v ABSTRACT Music as a Procedural Motive in the Filmmaking of Darren Aronofsky, Sofia Coppola, and Paul Thomas Anderson by Meghan Joyce Tozer In this dissertation, I argue that the late 1990s and early 2000s represent a particularly musical moment for certain emerging American film directors who both integrated music throughout their creative processes and framed their preoccupation with music as a way to define themselves as filmmakers. Scholars across disciplines have presented various overlapping criteria by which to group these filmmakers, from media historian Jeffrey Sconce’s “Sundance Generation” to literature scholar Nicholas Rombes’s “new punk cinema.” I analyze the musical aspects that emerge in these groupings without strictly adhering to any one parameter. Specifically, I show how screenwriter-directors Darren Aronofsky, Sofia Coppola, and Paul Thomas Anderson challenge the boundaries between original and pre-existing music, among musical and film genres, and between the very media of music and film. I focus on the collaborations of Darren Aronofsky and former punk front man Clint Mansell on Requiem for a Dream (2000) and Black Swan (2010); Sofia Coppola and punk drummer turned music supervisor Brian Reitzell on The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Lost in Translation (2003); and Paul Thomas Anderson and pop-rock music producer Jon Brion for the scores of Magnolia (1999), which Anderson consistently describes as an “adaptation” of Aimee Mann’s songs, and Punch-Drunk Love (2003). vi Significantly, Aronofsky, Coppola, and Anderson consistently refer to their filmmaking approaches as “musical.” I do not suggest that these self-conscious descriptions offer an especially reliable interpretation of the films, but rather I turn to them for insight into the filmmakers’ public image cultivation. Further, I show how these filmmakers approach music as creative inspiration and as a procedural motive by collaborating from early stages in production with non-classical composers, writing musical cues and notes into their screenplays, and structuring their films in a way they understand to be musical. Thus I put forth all iterations of the screenplay as well as the filmmaker’s public descriptions of their creative methods, neither of which is usually considered in the study of film music, as necessary tools in understanding these “musical” films as multi-layered texts. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Introductory Ideas and Materials .................................................................................... 1 Theoretical Issues............................................................................................................ 9 Mechanics of Analysis and Thesis Overview ............................................................... 20 Chapter One: Darren Aronofsky and Clint Mansell ......................................................... 23 Postmodern Filmic Resonances: Punk Attitudes and Monsters ................................... 28 Requiem for a Dream .................................................................................................... 36 The Influence of Selby’s Novel ................................................................................ 40 Mansell’s Main Theme: Lux Aeterna ....................................................................... 45 Repetition and Hip-Hop Montages ........................................................................... 50 Critical Responses to Requiem for a Dream ............................................................. 56 Black Swan .................................................................................................................... 59 The Story of Swan Lake and the Black Swan Screenplay ......................................... 62 Nina’s Musical Doubling: Beth ................................................................................ 65 Nina’s Musical Doubling: Lily ................................................................................. 67 Ambiguous Diegesis in Black Swan ......................................................................... 72 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 78 Chapter Two: Sofia Coppola and Brian Reitzell .............................................................. 81 Defying Genre in The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation ................................... 89 The Virgin Suicides ....................................................................................................... 98 Music-making as Life; Silence as Death ................................................................ 103 viii Pre-Existing Pop Songs in the Documentary Diegesis ........................................... 113 Transference of Narrative Haze through Air’s Soundtrack .................................... 120 Lost in Translation .....................................................................................................