Directors you can recognize by soundtracks and general sounds

CyberGhost

For me it's these three:

Carpenter
Cronenberg
Verhoeven

Carpenter and Cronenberg movies I can always recognize by their soundtracks. Very specific.

Verhoeven has very distinctive sounds for guns in his movies. Robocop, Total Recall. He also has heroic sounding soundtracks in his movies too.

Anybody else?

dreamers75

Danny Boyle
Alex Garland
Darren Aronofsky
Edgar Wright
Tarantino

mikhail

Lads, the mods don't like list threads. Gotta talk about your choices a little or they'll lock it up. Which is fair enough: lists are boring.

Tony EH

Argento, but this is largely because I associate him with Goblin and haven't watched his "non-Goblin" scored films too many times. Hermann and Hitchcock, again because because the Hitchcock films I still watch today (there aren't too many Hitch films that I can any more) are collaborations between the two. Leone and Morricone would be instantly recognisable too, even though they only collaborated 6 times.

But, yeh, the obvious one has already been named, which is Carpenter who, apart from 'In the Mouth of Madness' and maybe 'The Ward', has those instantly recognisable synth tunes in his work.

Although, I think a better question would be who are the film music composers that are recognisable by their soundtracks.

Tony EH

Tony EH wrote: »

Although, I think a better question would be who are the film music composers that are recognisable by their soundtracks.

Yeah that is a more interesting question. Lalo Schifrin with his funk. Ennio's italian notes, Goldsmiths love of horn sections, Badalamenti's brooding....

Sad Professor

I doubt there's many good examples of this. Most will be of directors work from the same era or with the same collaborators. i.e. you aren't recognising the director, you are recognising the composer etc. I suppose some directors may be recognisable due to their taste in songs or how they use them - Scorsese, Tarantino etc, but even that is probably restricted to films of a similar genre. I am not sure there are many directors who have used different composers/collaborators over the years and still have recognisable sound/soundtracks. Michael Mann maybe...

Treppen

mikhail wrote: »

Lads, the mods don't like list threads. Gotta talk about your choices a little or they'll lock it up. Which is fair enough: lists are boring.

1. Not true.
2. No they won't.
3. Here's 9 psychological reasons why we like lists https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150410-9-reasons-we-love-lists.
4. Tim Burton aka Danny Elfman (aka Johnny Depp/Helena Bonham carter)

Tony EH

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah that is a more interesting question. Lalo Schifrin with his funk. Ennio's italian notes, Goldsmiths love of horn sections, Badalamenti's brooding....

Yeh, Schifrin, from a certain period, you'd know fairly quickly. It's funny, as a kid I hated his music in films. It just screamed 70's at me, which in the 80's was old man stuff and a bit dated. :pac: How ridiculous that sounds now.

Today, I think his pieces from the first two Dirty Harry films are masterpieces. His 'Dirty Horns' from 'Bullitt' is great too. Dangerous when your driving though and it suddenly ends.

Morricone is a strange one however. The guy's done so much, that I can still be surprised by him in a film. It's probably because I instantly associate him with spaghetti westerns, that he's pigeon-holed in my head. I have to remind myself that he was also responsible for 'The Thing' and weird stuff like "Here's to You" with Joan Baez from 'Sacco and Vanzetti'.

But, I think one of the most recognisable film composers has to be John Barry. His particular style just says big movies to me. Although he could possible be accused of being a bit samey.

mikhail

Treppen wrote: »

1. Not true.
2. No they won't.

The charter is stickied here.

NO LIST THREADS
The Films Forum is for discussion, not making lists. If you wish to talk about something be prepared to outline why you are mentioning it. Don't simpley write:
Film X
Film Y
Film Z
It's unimaginative, it's boring and nobody wants to read it. Any such threads will be locked or deleted!

Tony EH

Tony EH wrote: »

Yeh, Schifrin, from a certain period, you'd know fairly quickly. It's funny, as a kid I hated his music in films. It just screamed 70's at me, which in the 80's was old man stuff and a bit dated. :pac: How ridiculous that sounds now.

Today, I think his pieces from the first two Dirty Harry films are masterpieces. His 'Dirty Horns' from 'Bullitt' is great too. Dangerous when your driving though and it suddenly ends.

Morricone is a strange one however. The guy's done so much, that I can still be surprised by him in a film. It's probably because I instantly associate him with spaghetti westerns, that he's pigeon-holed in my head. I have to remind myself that he was also responsible for 'The Thing' and weird stuff like "Here's to You" with Joan Baez from 'Sacco and Vanzetti'.

But, I think one of the most recognisable film composers has to be John Barry. His particular style just says big movies to me. Although he could possible be accused of being a bit samey.

Yeah I like Barry, but a bit samey. Hans Zimmer I can tell instantly simply because he is so samey. He gets a lot of love but I wouldn't have him on the level of the greats mentioned above because of his penchant for regurgutation.

Tangerine Dream is another recognisable one from the 80's. Their music suits a certain colour of film, like Thief. Ideal Michael Mann combo. Vangelis also, although he f****** up bad with Alexander as everyone did until they released the final cut.

the purple tin

John Williams has a distinctive big, sweeping and uplifting style.
His music soars for want of a better word.

Capt'n Midnight

Michael Mann likes music. Manhunter is the best Hannibal Lecter film and Brian Cox is the best Lecter.

Sergio Leone and Enrico Morricone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubVc2MQwMkg

Edda Dell'Orso sings most of the vowels in The Ecstasy of Gold

Mad_maxx

martin scorcesse , " gimme shelter " by the stones is guarenteed to be in it early on

Hangdogroad

Mad_maxx wrote: »

martin scorcesse , " gimme shelter " by the stones is guarenteed to be in it early on

Plus a lot of 50s/early 60s Doo Wop/ Phil Spector/ 50s crooners.