cat people soundtrack

bruno

est malade
i suppose it's difficult to separate the images from the music in the case of soundtracks, more so when the images burn into your retina. that is the case with cat people, and here sound and image are inseparable. which isn't to say the sound is lacking. it's giorgio moroder at his finest, and on one track david bowie at his most bearable, for those of us that don't tolerate him.

the music encapsulates what i love about the early 80s aesthetic, which is halfway between the rotting corpse of the late seventies and the more polished (and leaning towards bland) mid 80s. synths are melancholic and have a tendency to stretch out forever in a way that the more attention-span challenged synths of the mid 80s do not. so giorgio moroder carries the baggage of a dead era into a new one, and like john carpenter and vangelis reinforces memory. but it's clearly a new era, cold and emotionally detached.

the music brings to mind vivid colours, rain, wet skin, neon lights.. and on an emotional level uncertainty, sadness, anxiety, erotic tension. the same elements that make up blade runner and (visually) sans soleil, my other favourite films of 1982.

i can't help but associate these sounds and images to my own 1982: visiting a holograph museum with my father, the hum and glitter of the city from a rooftop at night, a newsstand displaying a woman's pubic hair in flames on a magazine cover (an image which haunts me to this day, damn you art directors).

cat1.jpg


everything is half-way. tense, dream-like, ambiguous. it's a twilight music. a track with the title 'transformation seduction' would suggest to you erotism, but instead it's a moment of horror, of tension. both in the original 1942 and in the 1982 version there is this fear of sex, and each version is a reflection of the times: strict morality-tainted 40s and aids-tainted 80s.

to be fair the soundtrack has a few low points, but nothing a lifting of the needle or a press of a button won't fix. and some of the tracks are different and longer in the film. and some are only to be heard in the film. but staring back at me from my battered lp is the savage beauty of nastassja kinski. i personally couldn't ask for more.
 
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polystyle

Well-known member
Living under the big tree

Got your back on this one Bruno
At our party in Tokyo last summer I was playing stuff from this Album ,
what's the track from jogging scene , also Irena's 'theme'.
Bowie's track makes me laugh , maybe good for shower singalong - karaoke . Maybe ...
Kinski's lips make that cover tho'
 

bruno

est malade
..but you best a watch your front... polystyle you lucky devil, this music played in tokyo makes absolute sense! incidentally i have no idea what the image i used says, i chose it because my lp was too battered to merit scanning. this looks like something off a fanbook but it could be saying anything (irresponsible). the track used in the jogging scene is 'paul's theme' but it could be something different in the film, i haven't seen it in ages. time to hunt it down again.
 
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henry s

Street Fighting Man
that Cat People movie played a role (probably larger than I would ever like to admit) in my decision to attend Tulane University back in the day...

the version of the title song that ultimately appeared on David Bowie's album (what was the name of that one?) was ridiculously inferior to the one on the soundtrack...
 

polystyle

Well-known member
Rote Lippen

That Japanese text say's , roughly
'Nastassja Kinski transforms into a panther in this fantasy of eros and thrill ...'

Always a pleasure to see this cover , dripping red
The D Bowie Album that has his other version of 'People' , hmm ? one of his big sell out 'Let's Dawdle' or so
 
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owen

Well-known member
bruno said:
the music brings to mind vivid colours, rain, wet skin, neon lights.. and on an emotional level uncertainty, sadness, anxiety, erotic tension. the same elements that make up blade runner and (visually) sans soleil, my other favourite films of 1982.

i can't help but associate these sounds and images to my own 1982: visiting a holograph museum with my father, the hum and glitter of the city from a rooftop at night, a newsstand displaying a woman's pubic hair in flames on a magazine cover (an image which haunts me to this day, damn you art directors).

beautifully put. hmm, i really must go back to this...i do absolutely love moroder's midnight express soundtrack, but i've never actually seen the film, partly deliberately, as it can't possibly be as good as the neon dystopia evoked by the music. similarly not a huge fan of the schrader cat people- much prefer, like a true pseud, the simone simon original ;)
 

DigitalDjigit

Honky Tonk Woman
owen said:
beautifully put. hmm, i really must go back to this...i do absolutely love moroder's midnight express soundtrack, but i've never actually seen the film, partly deliberately, as it can't possibly be as good as the neon dystopia evoked by the music. similarly not a huge fan of the schrader cat people- much prefer, like a true pseud, the simone simon original ;)

Midnight Express is a good movie but the soundtrack just doesn't mesh with the images at all in my mind. It probably goes better with the Art Bell show. It's this show on American late-night radio that deals with UFO's and conspiracy theories and all that kind of stuff that uses "The Chase" as the theme.
 

bruno

est malade
owen said:
beautifully put. hmm, i really must go back to this...i do absolutely love moroder's midnight express soundtrack, but i've never actually seen the film, partly deliberately, as it can't possibly be as good as the neon dystopia evoked by the music. similarly not a huge fan of the schrader cat people- much prefer, like a true pseud, the simone simon original ;)
thanks. i worship the original too but i saw this one first, it's taken front row seats in the mess that is my head. as for midnight express i don't know, i haven't seen that in ages. but if you like to see john hurt doing his insane bit you'll like it, i think.
 
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