Find your next favorite work.

[Choo Ah-young’s Music Box] Magical Moments Made from Clashing Images and Sound in ‘Heaven Knows What’

I’m drawn to music in movies. Sometimes, music conveys a character’s private feelings that images and dialogue alone cannot fully express. It can also offer a window into a creator’s hidden intentions. For me, understanding a film’s music has been one way to reach the film itself. In “Choo Ah-young’s Music Box,” I listen more closely to what films have to say through their music. (P.S. I hope you’ll listen to the music as you read.)

〈Heaven Knows What〉
〈Heaven Knows What〉

A haze of acrid cigarette smoke drifts across the frame. On the street, a man and woman cling to each other and kiss. Electronic music plays over the image, and a woman’s sobs—whose, we cannot yet tell—break through it. In the next shot, the film reveals who is crying. The man disappears, and the woman he was kissing is left alone. She bursts into tears and says, “You’re all I need.” From its opening, 〈Heaven Knows What〉 establishes how images and sound resonate in the films of brothers Josh and Benny Safdie. The camera renders the harsh lives of New York’s streets with realism, while dreamy electronic music clashes with those images to complete the magic of a Safdie brothers film. In their work, that dissonance does not steer the audience’s feelings in a single direction; it opens up another dimension. I took another look at the moments when the music in 〈Heaven Knows What〉 conspires with the images to make magic.


〈Heaven Knows What〉
〈Heaven Knows What〉

Harley (Arielle Holmes), a homeless woman addicted to heroin, is trapped in a self-destructive relationship with her boyfriend, Ilya (Caleb Landry Jones). After repeated conflicts, she leaves him and returns, again and again, unable to break free of love and desire. On New York’s unforgiving streets, the two continue a precarious life marked by recurring drugs, violence and obsession.


〈Heaven Knows What〉
〈Heaven Knows What〉

〈Heaven Knows What〉 adapts 「Mad Love in New York City」, the memoir of heroin addict Arielle Holmes based on her own experiences. The film preserves the source material’s realism. Rather than laboring to explain Harley’s past, it borrows from cinéma vérité to depict a life consumed by drugs and love, existing only in the present. Through spontaneous camera work in 〈Heaven Knows What〉, 〈Good Time〉 (2017) and 〈Uncut Gems〉 (2019), among other films, the Safdie brothers have brought to light truths about life hidden beneath the surface of reality. Of these films, 〈Heaven Knows What〉 stands at the beginning of the process that solidified their worldview. But whereas cinéma vérité is a documentary approach that reveals truth through observing and engaging with reality, the Safdies reconstruct that reality as an unstable sensory experience through exaggerated speed and music. The characters’ daily lives look real, but the density of time and emotion within them feels closer to a hallucination.

Album cover for a piece by James Dashow
Album cover for a piece by Isao Tomita
(From left) Album cover for a piece by James Dashow; album cover for a piece by Isao Tomita

James Dashow’s “Oedipus Orca (Theme from “Oedipus Orca”),” heard in the film’s opening, makes that hallucinatory quality unmistakable. Originally, the piece was experimental film music from the 1970s that combined electronic sounds and jazz. By placing it at the opening, the Safdies convey Harley’s love as something strange and adrift. Here, the music expresses a sense of loss Harley cannot fully put into words. The editing also lets us hear her sobs before we see her, giving sound a head start. The audience is caught up in Harley’s emotions before seeing her tears, then looks at her face when it appears on screen. This gap between sound and image reveals the invisible distance between the two characters. Their bodies are pressed together, but the music and sobbing deny that intimacy, creating a fracture within the frame.

〈Heaven Knows What〉
〈Heaven Knows What〉

Japanese electronic musician Isao Tomita’s “Suite Bergamasque: Clair de Lune, No. 3” reworks Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” on a synthesizer. Tomita’s piece preserves the original’s lyricism while transforming it with the synthesizer’s cold, cosmic tones. In 〈Heaven Knows What〉, it is not romantic background music but an auditory device that lets us hear the moment Harley’s reality tips toward hallucination and loss. The tension in 〈Heaven Knows What〉 comes not from a meticulously constructed narrative but from the characters’ unpredictable movements and paths, and the mounting force of their destructive emotions. The music does not rush to rescue them with romance; it intensifies the sensations in which they are caught.

[Chua-young's Music Box] The Meta Representation of Subculture 'Cosmic Princess Kaguya!' with 'World Is Mine' and 'Reply'

[Chua-young's Music Box] The Meta Representation of Subculture 'Cosmic Princess Kaguya!' with 'World Is Mine' and 'Reply'

I get hooked on the music in movies. Music sometimes conveys the intimate emotions of characters that cannot be expressed through visible images and audible dialogues. It can also serve as a window to glimpse the hidden intentions of the creator. For me, understanding movie music was one way to connect with the film. 'Chua-young's Music Box' listens to the voice of the movie more closely through music. (P.S. I hope you read this while listening to the music.)

[Chu Ah-young's Music Box] Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and 'Heal the World' That Tried to Turn Dreams into Reality

[Chu Ah-young's Music Box] Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and 'Heal the World' That Tried to Turn Dreams into Reality

I am captivated by music in films. Music sometimes reveals a character's intimate emotions that visible images and spoken lines alone cannot convey. It can become a window into the creator's hidden intentions. For me, understanding film music was one way of reaching a movie. 'Chu Ah-young's Music Box' listens to a film's voice up close by way of its music. (P.S. I hope you listen to the music while reading.)

[Choo A-young’s Music Box] After Anger, ‘Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger’ Sings Again

[Choo A-young’s Music Box] After Anger, ‘Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger’ Sings Again

[Chua-Young’s Music Box] ‘Project Hail Mary’—A Story of Humanity’s Trembling at the Brink of the End, and ‘Sign of the Times’

[Chua-Young’s Music Box] ‘Project Hail Mary’—A Story of Humanity’s Trembling at the Brink of the End, and ‘Sign of the Times’

[Chua-young's Music Box] The Screams of 'The Shining', the Auditory Discomfort Created by Krzysztof Penderecki's Music

[Chua-young's Music Box] The Screams of 'The Shining', the Auditory Discomfort Created by Krzysztof Penderecki's Music

I get hooked on the music in movies. Music sometimes conveys the intimate emotions of characters that cannot be fully expressed through visible images and audible dialogues. It can also serve as a window to glimpse the hidden intentions of the creator. For me, understanding film music was one way to connect with the film. 'Chua-young's Music Box' listens to the voice of the film more closely through music. (P.S. I hope you read this while listening to the music.)

[Chua-young's Music Box] Why Did 'What If We' Resonate with Today's Youth? The Romance Fantasy of the Non-Dating Generation

[Chua-young's Music Box] Why Did 'What If We' Resonate with Today's Youth? The Romance Fantasy of the Non-Dating Generation

I am captivated by the music in movies. Music sometimes conveys the intimate emotions of characters that cannot be expressed through visible images and audible dialogues alone. It can also serve as a window into the hidden intentions of the creator. For me, understanding movie music was one way to connect with the film. 'Chua-young's Music Box' listens to the voice of the movie more closely through music. (P.S. I hope you read this while listening to the music.)

Choo A-young's Music Box: Steven Spielberg and John Williams Reunite for Their 30th Film, 〈Disclosure Day〉

Choo A-young's Music Box: Steven Spielberg and John Williams Reunite for Their 30th Film, 〈Disclosure Day〉

[Chua-young's Music Box] The Music of 'Pavane' Following the Path of Love

[Chua-young's Music Box] The Music of 'Pavane' Following the Path of Love

I am captivated by the music in movies. Music sometimes conveys the intimate emotions of characters that cannot be expressed through visible images and audible dialogues. It can also serve as a window into the hidden intentions of the creator. For me, understanding film music was one way to connect with the film. 'Chua-young's Music Box' listens to the voice of the film more closely through music. (P.S. I hope you read this while listening to the music.)

[Chua-Young’s Music Box] Music for the Purification Ritual of Wounded Youth: “Girls Band Cry”

[Chua-Young’s Music Box] Music for the Purification Ritual of Wounded Youth: “Girls Band Cry”

I get hooked on the music in the film. Music sometimes conveys intimate feelings a character can’t fully express through the visuals alone—or through the lines you hear. It can also serve as a window into the creator’s hidden intentions. For me, understanding film music was one way to connect with the movie. “Chua-Young’s Music Box” lets you listen more closely to the movie’s voice through music. (P.S. While listening to the music, I hope you’ll read the article.)

In 'Odyssey,' Music Maps Odysseus' Shattered Inner Life

In 'Odyssey,' Music Maps Odysseus' Shattered Inner Life

Choo Ah-young's Music Box: How 'Marty Supreme' and 1980s New Wave Lay Bare Capitalism's Script

Choo Ah-young's Music Box: How 'Marty Supreme' and 1980s New Wave Lay Bare Capitalism's Script

[Chua-young's Music Box] May Madness Reign on This Land! '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple' and 'The Number of the Beast'

[Chua-young's Music Box] May Madness Reign on This Land! '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple' and 'The Number of the Beast'

I am captivated by the music in movies. Music sometimes conveys the intimate emotions of characters that cannot be expressed through visible images and audible dialogues alone. It can also serve as a window into the hidden intentions of the creator. For me, understanding film music was one way to connect with the film. 'Chua-young's Music Box' listens to the voice of the film more closely through music. (P.S. I hope you read this while listening to the music.)

[Chua-young's Music Box] The Coexistence of Sorrow and Hope 'Super Happy Forever' and 'Beyond The Sea'

[Chua-young's Music Box] The Coexistence of Sorrow and Hope 'Super Happy Forever' and 'Beyond The Sea'

I am captivated by the music in movies. Music sometimes conveys the intimate emotions of characters that cannot be expressed through visible images and audible dialogues alone. It can also serve as a window to glimpse the hidden intentions of the creator. For me, understanding film music was one way to connect with the film. 'Chua-young's Music Box' listens to the voice of the film more closely through music. (P.S. I hope you read this while listening to the music.)

×

댓글 (0)

아직 댓글이 없습니다. 첫 댓글을 작성해보세요!

댓글 작성