It is in French and I don't know if there is anything in it that you don't already know, but here is a Google Translate version in English just in case:
We know the power of music, which may be forever associated with the images it has transcended how many songs are now inseparable motion picture entered into the collective unconscious? The bombardment of napalm Apocalypse Now would it have been hallucinatory without this dimension of the Doors The End?
But when the same title is found and used by different filmmakers declined in dramas, comedies or horror movies, it can generate multiple meanings and trim each sequence of special significance, as we explore in this series Pop songs and movies.
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen
As has become iconic, and have far exceeded the fame of its author, "Hallelujah" released in 1984 on the album Various Positions by Leonard Cohen. Dealing with religion (biblical references to Samson and Delilah or King David) and sex, the title is not unanimous in its release. Columbia, the record of Cohen hesitated even to be included in the tracklist of the album. In 1991, a tribute album to Cohen invited many artists to reinterpret his songs and John Cale, one of the members of the Velvet Underground, takes "Hallelujah". He retains the words written by Cohen but removes the last verse. This "new" version endorses the song as a standard. In 1994, Jeff Buckley, in his only album Grace, took the title "rewritten" by John Cale and make it world famous. In April 2009 at a Canadian radio antenna, Leonard Cohen was commenting on the cover of yet another title: "I read a review of the movie Watchmen, which uses the title and the journalist said: Could we do a moratorium on" Hallelujah "in movies and series? I'm a bit like him ... I think it's a good song but I think too many people sing it." Cohen is right, the list goes on. Here, a tiny glimpse.
The song of the dead
Julian Schnabel achieves in 1996 a biopic of the New York painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. The film follows the incredible rise of the artist, from the box to Tompkins Square to the beautiful areas of Upper East Side, tacking between cocaine, heroin and pretty girls. Basquiat ends with the artist's death at age 27 (again) of a drug overdose. Refusing probably the pathos that the staging of his death could have created, the director chooses to show Basquiat (Jeffrey Wright) on a street in Manhattan, eager to go to Ireland to drink in all pubs. He then opted for the sobriety of a black screen which is summarized in the last few lines of swerving the enfant terrible of contemporary art. This tragic end is then highlighted by the use of "Hallelujah" in its John Cale. First occurrence of the title in a deadly, "Hallelujah", which was not originally a funeral song, this is the most common use since. Nostalgia, sadness, this is the mood that the piece distil often thereafter.
Basquiat
Green sadness
In 2001, Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson revolutionizing the animated film Shrek realizing. Until then, the songs used in movies (eg Disney's) were original creations of the great classical themes. Shrek burst the iron law and mixes pop culture and children's films. In this story where Shrek, a green ogre is in love with Fiona, a princess bride in Prince Charming, the elements of the fairy tale is Dizzy (everything is there, the castle, the dragon, but the princess trapped in random order) and musical effects suffer the same fate. Surprising then to hear the melody of Leonard Cohen when the characters are supposed to be returned to their normal lives (Shrek his swamp, Fiona until her marriage ...) are a kind of balance that reveals their unhappiness. While "Hallelujah" is played by John Cale in the movie, the soundtrack credits it Rufus Wainwright (yet another reprise). Two "Hallelujah" for the price of one is the magic of fairy tales.
Shrek
A German Trip
If the Americans have largely returned to the theme of Leonard Cohen, the old continent is appropriate in 2004. In The Edukators by Hans Weingartner, a trio of young people, anarchists light, fun to enter uninhabited houses in order to empty the bottles of champagne, take it easy in the whirlpools or tag walls tidy middle-class vacation. But when an owner makes about-face, teens lose their cool and kidnap. They find refuge in a cabin in the mountains, but tensions arise (the two boys who love the same girl). In the form of stock, the use of "Hallelujah" takes stock of these lost children, which the victim ends up caring. Flustered, overwhelmed by the situation they created, the trio ends up patch up, releasing the hostage and trying to rebuild elsewhere. If the tone is melancholy, it is far from tragic Schnabel. Agreements Buckley resonate more as a loss of innocence, a drive back to reality once the ideals buried. Amen.
The Edukators
War and Peace
In the great Lord of War (2005), Andrew Niccol Yuri staged a small rogue Little Odessa (a neighborhood in Brooklyn) becomes with the breakdown of communist countries, a leader in arms sales in the world. As he conducts his professional front and personal life (married, father), its activities are eventually discovered by his wife. While it is suspected (of adultery or fraudulent traffic), she decides to follow him one morning and finds himself in the arms cache of her husband. This time, the title of Leonard Cohen (Buckley version) rhymes with revelations. Allowing a discreet setting up the challenges of the stage (soft music), "Hallelujah" the stage of the reversal of the fears of the female character and domestic confrontation inevitable source of tragedy to come to the public. Red Heat narrative for the key moment in the film where the unspoken is finally emerging at the surface.
Lord of War
Sex in space
In 2009, Watchmen by Zack Snyder, this is not a stage of questioning, balance or funerals accompanying "Hallelujah" but rather a sequence ass. Devilishly daring use against the many previous uses, the chaste possible. But from one who "gayïfié" warriors Sparta in 300, anything is possible. We thus find the Silk Spectre and Dr. Manhattan in space together for a scene of sexual intercourse between superheroes. The bad taste of the sequence is puzzling. The light bluish halo bodies, the music a bit depressing Cohen (Himself version of the master, rather rare in cinema finally), caresses alien characters, everything seems shifted. Perhaps it is no coincidence that this part of the film can not be found on the net (if you know where you drive it, do not hesitate to throw a link that history to rinse the eye) . Nevertheless, the radius Cohen, the bravura of Snyder will be remembered.
To be continued ...
Once will not hurt, abandon the cinema for a few moments to look to another provider versions of "Hallelujah": the American TV series. Product absolute pop culture, the series could not do without a song so universal, conveying the first steps a world, illustrating both the melodrama that the drama, the story of impossible love or an intense melancholy. Receiving only 22 minutes (or 45 for longer), the format of the series must go to the point, piling the references are all shortcuts avoiding unnecessary palaver (the time in Hollywood is the money). Thus we find "Hallelujah" from Lost, The West Wing (A White House), Without a trace (Without a Trace), Cold Case, House MD, but also much more teen series like The OC (Newport Beach) or Ugly Betty, helping the younger generation to discover the classical Cohen (It is interesting to note that only the Buckley version is used on the small screen).