Influences (Part 2)

It's always been difficult for me to put my interest in heavy metal music and the influence of it on my films into words. And while I'm not what you would typically classify as a "metalhead", I do listen to that genre of music more than people might think, especially as I get older.

I think the main quality I take away from it and try to apply to my films is the idea of technical proficiency meeting the subversive and abrasive. I think even the most staunch metal-phobe would be hard pressed to deny that Dave Lombardo from Slayer is a talented drummer, for example. And just as film artist like David Lynch or David Cronenberg works with highly skilled technicians and creates dark and very mainstream unfriendly cinema, my favorite metal artists create abrasive and some might say ugly pieces of music.

"Ugly (Is a Movie)" is the first film in which I have played with the notion of including hardcore or metal music on the soundtrack. The artist is Doomsday 1999, a now defunct band from Seattle. The scene in question is one where we cut back and forth between Rose (Amber Hubert) talking to her friend Marie (Caitlin Hill) about Marie's encounter with Lynden (Sam Suver) and Lynden painting, rather wildly, while listening to Doomsday 1999 on his stereo. To me, the scene functions on a couple of levels:

1. Stylistically, the cutting back and forth between a very quiet domestic scene (Rose's apartment is nearly silent except for the limited conversation between Rose and Marie) and a mildly chaotic scene with very noisy and loud music dominating the soundtrack creates a nice juxtaposition and engages the viewer (and therefore listener) a little bit more and makes both the scenes a little more interesting (sum of the parts kind of thing). The scene ends with an extremely long visual fade to black while the song actually rises in volume as the song builds to a cacophonous climax, leaving the viewer no choice but to absorb the soundtrack fully. It creates a strange environment in the theatre during this scene. I've watched the audience watch it on numerous occasions and it nearly always creates a lot of discomfort (people covering their ears, laughing uncomfortably). This might make me an egotistical sadist but this delights me to no end. I like playing with the audience and toying with their expectations a little bit. This is sort of my version of that playful New Wave spirit I talked about in the Godard post, I suppose.

2. From a character/narrative stand point, it simply shows what kind of person Lynden is a little more. Lynden doesn't talk much so I tried incorporating some signifiers in the film to paint a better picture of what makes Lynden tick or what interests him. The music we listen to says a lot about us as people, I think. What is says exactly about Lynden I will leave to the mind of the viewer. For some, it leads them to believe he is more sinister or dark, for some it humanizes him a little more, some just find it a funny idiosyncrasy. I guess it just depends on your attitude towards the metal genre and your biases for or against it.

Hopefully I can put a clip of this scene in the future. I'm working on getting some youtube clips set-up. Stay tuned for that in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading.