Another fantastic movie video montage by New York film editor and writer Jason Bailey. This time Bailey explores those romantic interludes where the director stops the action to show a couple falling in love as they spend meaningful hours alone together, frolicking, walking on the beach or some other pretty place in nature—as a hit song plays in the foreground. The most egregious example being Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) with its jarring “Lyrical Interlude” set to “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head (B.J. Thomas). On Flavorwire, Bailey quotes Roger Ebert’s definition of the Semi-Obligatory Lyrical Interlude” as “[a] Scene in which soft focus and slow motion are used while a would-be hit song is performed on the soundtrack and the lovers run through a pastoral setting.” Beyond the perfectly sappy music of the Carpenter’s hit song “Close to You,” what’s most satisfying with Bailey’s essay is his inclusion of The Naked Gun (1988). Twenty-seven years later this lyrical interlude spoof is still laugh-out-loud funny. Enjoy!
—JDW
FILMS
Aladdin (Ron Clements, John Musker, 1992)
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (Jay Roach, 1997)
Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969)
Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith, 1997)
Crazy/Beautiful (John Stockwell, 2001)
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
The Karate Kid (John G. Avildsen, 1984)
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Nothing in Common (Garry Marshall, 1986)
Play Misty for Me (Clint Eastwood, 1971)
Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, 1990)
Say Anything (Cameron Crowe, 1989)
Take the Money and Run (Woody Allen, 1969)
Yes Man (Peyton Reed, 2008)
moviefiednyc.com 