FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

The Bee Gees’ killer soundtrack album for Saturday Night Fever is arguably just as famous as the film itself. Your choices, then, for what we’ll be screening on Tuesday 4 November, are out of three films which also boast similarly killer soundtrack albums. Up for the vote are:

Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, USA, 1993)

“The teenage wasteland, 1976-style, of Dazed and Confused is smack-dab between The Brady Bunch and Children of the Damned , and it's a scary, if sometimes giddily amusing, place to visit." Variety

It's the last day of school, and in Austin, Texas, the Class of '76 are determined to CELEBRATE. This they do by chasing freshmen, partying at a local pool, consuming vast quantities of drink n drugs - all the while hunting down a pair of elusive Aerosmith tickets. Written and directed by Richard Linklater, this coming-of-age comedy not only boasts a brilliant cast (including Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey and Milla Jovovich) but an absolutely killer soundtrack of classic AOR/Stoner rock (Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Kiss et al)

Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, USA, 1997)

“[The] backdrop of night-time Tokyo as an alien landscape against which the couple delicately explore each other's ambiguous feelings, this talented young director has produced a sad, funny, magical and almost irresistibly moving experience.” Adam Smith, Radio Times

Bill Murray stars as Bob Harris, a fading American movie star in the midst of a midlife crisis when he travels to Tokyo to promote Suntory whisky. There he meets young newly wed, Charlotte (Scarlet Johansson), who's similarly adrift in her life and the city, and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. Sofia Coppola's sophomore picture is not only a warm and poignant comedy but also boasts an absolutely killer soundtrack of cool alternative rock music (Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Death in Vegas et al)

Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, UK, 1996)

“Trainspotting is a searing pop-art portrait of a lost generation blowing out its brains. As they rail, chuckle, shout and dive into darkness, you're trapped yourself between a bellylaugh and a scream.” Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

Ewan McGregor stars as Renton, a extremely charismatic Edinburgh-based heroin addict who is half-heartedly endeavouring to go straight. But the allure of the drugs and the potent influence of his gang of friends (Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Ewan Bremner and Kelly MacDonald) make this easier said than done. Danny Boyle's adaptation of Irvine Welsh's classic novel not only captured/helped create the mid-90s hedonistic zeitgeist but also boasts an absolutely killer soundtrack of vintage counterculture classics and Britpop classics-in-wating (Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Pulp, et al) .