What A Good Score! – #43: Morvern Callar by Various Artists
What A Good Score was a new series created for Off The Tracks and now on Sounds Good! – looking at movie soundtracks, the good, the band and the astounding…
Whilst technically not a score in the traditional sense, and more overtly a compilation soundtrack of source music with some non-diegetic material merged, Morvern Callar’s soundtrack feels very much like ‘score’ because it is, essentially, a character in the film.
The 2002 movie by Lynne Ramsay is an adaptation of the 1995 novel by Alan Warner. The book and film have a mixtape in it — and that, essentially, is the role the soundtrack therefore plays. A compilation of the songs that a character in the story creates and leaves for another character in the story. (Of course there’s the pesky thing of rights and royalties and permissions, so not every single song as listed in the book appears in running order on the album, but this is a ‘score’ faithful to the film version, rather than the novel).
Morvern Callar tells the depressing story of a woman who wakes to find her boyfriend has committed suicide, left her a note with instructions and the aforementioned mixtape. She closes off from the world and listens to the music, both her literal soundtrack and guidance through grief — or actually sitting deep in it — and, in the case of the movie, it has to also propel the scenes forward, and give the audience something. So it really is a crucial component.
We have a lot of instrumental music here that would be at home in nearly any movie, as a type of ‘guide’ music for various scenes: CAN, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada…
Then we have moods that build on that but contain vocals: Stereolab, more CAN, Broadcast, and the iconic Some Velvet Morning by Lee and Nancy — which could almost be state-sanctioned to appear in absolutely every film and would always work!
There are other soundtrack staples too — The Velvet Underground, Lee “Scratch” Perry — and though they’re not quite staples, I was sure pleased to hear from my boys in Ween!
The Morvern Callar soundtrack serves two purposes then, and beautifully, cleverly. It must deliver the expectation of an actual mixtape — and therefore can absolutely be listened to on its own and away from the film (and in fact I owned it for about a year before I saw the film, and just loved it as a compilation album). It must also be the literal sounds of the film, and some armour and protection for one of the characters in the film; it carries the weight of unspoken conversation between the dead and the living. And that’s heavy-af, and you can really feel that in some of the selections, and in the overall mood of it as a whole piece.
You can listen to it like one giant song — an audio story if you like. The movie without the pictures. That’s no mean feat whatsoever.
And also a shout for the film — which is depressing as fuck, but astounding. A real mood, and hinged on an incredible performance from the never less than incredible Samantha Morton; delivered right at the absolute peak of her powers I reckon.
