My (short) workweek has been unusually bad, so I’m cheering myself up by streaming soundtracks on my Rhapsody account, particularly the film version of Sweeney Todd. Depp’s voice is unexpectedly smooth, with hairpin turns to the raspy and rage-filled. That amazing voice, paired with Sondheim’s master composing, fits my mood.

Unfortunately, Rhapsody won’t stream or sell the soundtrack to my other favorite movie of the season: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a French flick that’s adapted from the memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby. This man, once the powerful editor-in-chief of French Elle magazine, became suddenly immobilized by locked-in syndrome, could only move his left eyelid (I know, right?!) and dictated the entire book by blinking when his assistant read the letter he wanted. A sentence might take 5 hours. He died only a few days after the publication of the book in 1997. The film is less depressing than you might imagine, but also avoids the other trap of making a saccharine rising-above-all-odds success story that minimizes how difficult leading such a life must be. It captures both the weight and the flight inherent in Jean-Do’s immobility. There’s a good review of how they did this over here.

Complementing the art direction and cinematography is an excellent soundtrack: not only is the composed score suitably lush and contemplative, but the few non-score tracks they chose (most not in French, funnily enough) were great descriptions both of the life Jean-Do lived before the accident and the forced introspection and imagination he experiences afterwards. There’s a good balance of style: Tom Waits, U2, The Velvet Underground, Charles Trenet. Unfortunately, not all of the music played during the film made it into the soundtrack, but there’s a full list here, if you’re that dedicated. Anyways, apparently I can only get the soundtrack digitally, and only in a few places, which is annoying, as I loved it so much. Catch up, Rhapsody! I want cathartically tragic soundtracks on demand!

It’s interesting to me how movies and their music intersect, from the pop soundtracks of blockbusters, to musicals (which I am always love-or-hate on), to films which only use scores, etc. There are a lot of movies that I only enjoyed because the music chosen was so fitting that it actually manipulated me into overlooking issues I had with the screenwriting, casting, art direction, etc. Elizabethtown is one: I don’t know whose iPod they raided for that one, but I think I want to be friends with that person.

Final note: theplaylist.blogspot.com is devoted entirely to “that sweet spot where music and movies collide.” Enjoy.