Kim Gordon names the movie that uses music as “another character”
Sonic Youth rose to prominence during the alternative rock boom of the 1980s, emerging from New York’s thriving no-wave scene, which stood in opposition to the mainstream. With discordant guitars, harsh noise, and unconventional musical structures, the band captured people’s attention, subsequently becoming one of the most successful American alt-rock bands of all time.
On bass, and sometimes vocals, was Kim Gordon, who brought a welcome dose of femininity to the genre, often using her platform to sing about feminist issues. She inspired many women to become musicians, from Kathleen Hanna to St Vincent, proving that there was a space for female artists to succeed in the rock sphere – a landscape that had felt unconquerable for years.
She has since honed a successful career as a solo artist, blending her love of noise rock with trap and hip hop influences. Meanwhile, Gordon has also become involved in the world of cinema, both through soundtracks and acting. With Sonic Youth, she has contributed to soundtracks for movies like Made in U.S.A., Demonlover, and Lights Out. As an actor, however, Gordon has appeared in the likes of Last Days, I’m Not There, Gossip Girl, The Nightmare, and Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot.
Gordon loves cinema, and she has shared her favourite movies throughout the years, which includes Red Desert, Foxes, Days of Heaven, My Brother’s Wedding, and The Last Mistress. However, there’s also a film she finds incredibly inspiring, namely due to how potently it uses music, with Gordon calling the soundtrack a “character” in and of itself.
She revealed her love for Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar in an interview with Variety, explaining, “I love the way Lynne Ramsay uses sound dynamics. In this movie, the music is like another character.” She adds, “The mixtape that her dead boyfriend made and left for her (saying ‘Keep the music to yourself’) becomes a thread throughout the film. He is the music — it not only keeps him alive for her but replaces him.”
The film stars Samantha Morton in one of her earliest – but greatest – performances. Based on the novel by Alan Warner, the film follows a young woman named Morvern who wakes up on Christmas Day to discover that her boyfriend, James, has killed himself. Faced with his body, his manuscript for a novel, and a mixtape, she deals with his death in a very strange way, refusing to tell anyone that he has died.
As she embarks on an adventure that allows her to process her grief in a rather unhealthy way, she plays his mixtape, which is full of great tracks from the likes of Boards of Canada, Can, Broadcast, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Nancy Sinatra, the Velvet Underground, and Stereolab.
In a way, the film communicates the power of music as a tool for dealing with intense emotions, and, as Gordon states, these songs take on parts of James that we can only meet and understand through his choice of music. We might never meet him physically, but as the soundtrack unravels around Morvern, we become more closely acquainted with the man she loved.
