Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1126636
62 DGA QUARTERLY and never used. "I needed to make it feel like Bruce had written those songs for my fi lm, that they didn't actually exist before that." Adds Chadha: "There were occasions when I had a song I loved that I couldn't use, like 'Jungleland,' because the lyrics are so specifi c. Then I had an idea of how to use it." To have the track accompany a race riot scene, she dissected the song to emphasize the softer piano parts and then have Clarence Clemons' sax solo play over the scene. Unsure how Springsteen would appreciate the slice-and-dice approach to one of his epics, she approached him during hisSpringsteen on Broadwayrun to explain the scene. "I kind of had permission to do what I wanted, but this was really different," she explains. "We had a really good discussion and Bruce nodded. He said, 'I think Clarence would really like that.'" Similarly, when the Palladinos were working on the pilot of Mrs. Maisel, they included Barbra Streisand's recording of Cole Porter's "Come to the Supermarket (In Old Peking)" for a frantic scene that takes the lead character from uptown to then-exotic Greenwich Village. The scene has a hopped-up energy, an abandonment of the familiar for the unknown, which Sherman-Palladino credits to actually playing the music while fi lming. "The camera had the same energy as the song," she says. "Our actors, especially (lead player) Rachel (Brosnahan), loves having the energy of the music on stage. So even if it's just a walk down the street, if that's the song that's going to be playing underneath the walk, she wants to have it as a character—to know that her physicality is going to match up with the song. And frankly, it's just a lot more fun to have music around. The energy of the entire scene just changes." In the show's two seasons, they've added another touch never seen in period pieces: The inclusion of an out-of-the era song as the episode closes. XTC, the B-52's and other '70s new wave bands have been used, as have such hits as Paul Revere & the Raiders' "Hungry" and the Go- Go's "Our Lips Are Sealed."In the pilot, Dave Edmunds' version of "Girls Talk" was in the script from early on. "It just spoke exactly to what the show was going to be," Sherman-Palladino says. "The goal is to tell everybody, 'Here's the journey that we're on. Buckle up kids.' As much as we love the fact that we're in the '50s and '60s, we wanted to make sure the show felt fresh and modern. We wanted young girls to watch Midge and not say, 'Oh, neat, my grandma probably lived like that.' We wanted them to watch Midge and go, 'Oh, Jesus Christ, that's what I'm going through.' Part of that was bringing in, at the end,a little more rock, a little more modern song to sort of blur that line." Time frame—while an issue for Harron, the Palla- dinos and Chadha—wasn't an issue for Boyle, despite the emphasis on the Beatles' catalog inYesterday. The story is set in the modern day, when, due to a freak accident of just a few seconds, all history of the Fab Four has been erased. His protagonist proceeds to be perceived as the world's greatest songwriter as he proffers "In My Life," "The Long and Winding Road" and "Let It Be" as brand-spanking new originals. "It reimagines their music," Boyle says of his latest fi lm, "not in a kind of karaoke way or orchestrated way, but very faithfully to the originals. You obviously want that adrenaline hit when people recognize the song. But also you want it to have an extra currency in the scene." Boyle adds: "[The songs] are used in the spirit of a romantic comedy. There's that famous quote that the Quentin Tarantino deftly uses the not-so-cool-song, "Stuck in the Middle With You," during the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs. "Even if it's just a walk down the street, if that's the song that's going to be playing underneath the walk, [actress Rachel Brosnahan] wants to have it as a character." —AMY SHERMAN- PALLADINO On playing music on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel set SCREENPULL: LIONSGATE HOME ENTERTAINMENT