An Exploration into the Sound-world of ‘Comfort’ Films
By Alexina Dykes
We all know what our own ‘comfort’ films are. The movies we watch repeatedly, despite being able to recite the script and knowing exactly which scene comes after which. The movies that we maybe grew up with or associate with a bygone time in our lives. The movies fill us with that warm and fuzzy feeling tinted with that sadness of nostalgia. Having watched Atonement (2008) when I was fourteen (too sad to be considered a comfort film), I began to listen to film music as I love Dario Marianelli’s score with its eerie use of the typewriter to provide a rhythm section that evokes Robbie’s tragically misconstrued letter every time it is heard.
I have listened to a good number of film scores from my own ‘comfort’ category, mainly late 90s/2000s, largely American rom-com; I will discuss scores mainly from Monte Carlo (2011), The Princess Diaries (2001), You’ve Got Mail (1999), Love Rosie (2014) and The Parent Trap (1998), all decidedly soppy but fabulous films. Music does a huge degree of the emotional heavy lifting for movies, controlling atmospheres and viewer responses, and it is no coincidence or surprise that the sound-worlds of specifically ‘comfort’ films, I have noticed, are incredibly similar. The two solo instruments that pretty much always crop up in these scores playing main themes and leitmotifs are the guitar, (mostly acoustic) and the piano. Both instruments are familiar to start with, especially in the Western sound world. If you were lucky enough to have grown up learning a musical instrument, I can bet it was either the piano or guitar (or the violin).
The acoustic guitar has a warm timbre, especially in its lower register which is heavily used in these scores. The guitar has a softness and intimacy which means we often associate it with similar environments, being around a campfire for example. In The Parent Trap score (Alan Silvestri) the acoustic guitar in fact features heavily throughout the camp scenes e.g., in tracks such as “Changes” and the tense “Vineyard Suite” later on. In the short, “Separate Ways”, (Monte Carlo, Michael Giacchino) the electric guitar plays complex runs over basic shifting harmonies (00:01:30-00:01:55). Acoustic and electric guitar solos can be heard in so many other rom-com scores making these movies all sound quite familiar. Listen to any main theme from a number of these kinds of movies and you’ll hear this e.g., the main “Love, Rosie” theme (Ralf Wengenmayr). But the acoustic guitar is often layered in tracks to provide harmonic texture and steady rhythm, often through ostinatos as in “The Seduction of Paris” (Monte Carlo) which supports the piano melody. “Mia Apologizes” (The Princess Diaries, John Debney) is another track that does exactly this. A harmonica can be heard on this track playing a moody short melody which provides a sense of longing and frustration.
This seems like quite a random instrumental choice, but it accompanies guitar nicely with its similar shrillness and twangy effect and appears (or an electronically generated similar sound on a synth) in other scores, like “Keep in touch, Okay?” from Love, Rosie. The harmonica is also an instrument associated with blues and jazz, and jazz sections often appear in these scores when energy and drama are at a high. Any scene where someone is rushing through an office in New York or trying to get somewhere when ‘time is running out!’ or just whenever the villain appears in these rom-coms, will most likely be accompanied by a big-band number with brass, swung rhythms, quick tempos and louder dynamics. A good half of the Monte Carlo score are brass big-band and swing numbers with prominent drum sections and dissonant tones for example the track “Return Engagement”, which may be a nod to Stanley Turrentine’s Hard Bop piece of the same name. In “Cordelia’s Not So Suite” the piano solo contains playful chromaticism, syncopation, and just more notes, providing nice contrasts to the slower tempos and simpler melodies of the main themes. Lots of Michael Giacchino’s film scores are jazzy making the children’s movies he scored, e.g., Pixar’s “The Incredibles” or “Ratatouille” again, sound very alike. In The Parent Trap “Finale”, one can hear another orchestral jazz theme with a saxophone melody (00:00:42-00:01:26). Very Gershwin-esque, this jolly swing theme reveals this tendency to include fun, up-tempo, “cheeky” sections that offer a different tone to the Classical/Romantic dreamy soundscapes elsewhere in the scores. In fact, Glen Miller’s “In the Mood”, probably the most famous swing standard ever, is played throughout the hotel and elevator scenes, a nice accompaniment to these original score swing themes.
The piano is capable of versatile melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic dramatic expression. So many comfort-film scores contain piano melodies accompanied by full strings, making tracks sound at times like classical/romantic piano concertos. All roads in my opinion lead back to Beethoven and e.g., “Mia’s Decision” from The Princess Diaries is not far off from the sound world of say the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto or the 2nd movement of Chopin’s 1st Piano Concerto. Clearly, so many of these comfort-film scores evoke the sounds of Western canonical modes of musical expression that our ears are familiar with, whether you consciously listen to earlier Classical or Romantic 19th c. music or not.
These large orchestral soundscapes are a constant in comfort-film scores, and most important to them are these prominent string sections. I think for many people, Harry Potter is their comfort franchise, and John Williams’ leaping, dynamic string melodies and loud supporting brass sections in full orchestral tracks provoke seriously nostalgic and magical emotions. Just listen from 00:01:55 of “The Norwegian Ridgeback and a Change of Season” and you’ll know exactly what I mean. Wind instruments often solo with string accompaniments, such as the flute or clarinet with dainty, subtle melodies e.g., the main section of the theme from Four Weddings and a Funeral (Richard Rodney Bennett).
Used to support the piano or guitar when emotional intensity is at a high, strings and mellowed brass sections score scenes of reunion, falling in love or those moments near the end of all these movies where the protagonist realizes ‘they are okay...just as they are’ or that ‘they need to go back to their hometown and get away from the big city’. These tracks are my personal favourites for their full textures, lush major harmonies, and romantic expressions, for example, “If Only” and “Goodnight Dear Void” from You’ve Got Mail (George Fenton) and, the most beautiful pieces in my opinion: “Where Dreams Have no End” and “We Actually Did It” from The Parent Trap. These tracks swell with gorgeous legato melodies and variations in dynamics. Ornamental harp motifs add a pretty, sweet effect, short clarinet solos are deep and warm, and the loud main string climaxes are just triumphant. Even though I have heard them a million times I still get chills listening to these and the cringe but very moving feeling that ‘it will all be okay’.
Most of the main theme tracks in the movies I have mentioned are not harmonically or melodically too complex and rarely sway from the keys’ established tonalities using the classics: dominant, subdominant, and tonic chords as well as cheesy (but amazing) dominant 7ths that are always resolved, just as the characters’ problems always are in these sorts of films. These scores importantly don’t require us to work too hard to understand them or to listen too attentively. These tracks wash over us like a warm bath and wrap us up like a blanket, provoking a tear and a smile as you remember that you first watched that movie when you were 6 years old. Try and spot the similarities between the music of your comfort films when you next sit down to watch what you already know will happen anyway.
I have a Spotify playlist ‘St.art comfort-film scores’ (@alexinadykes) on Spotify with all the tracks mentioned apart from The Parent Trap score which you can find on YouTube. Feel free to put soundtracks from your own comfort films in the playlist!