Sleepless in Seattle cue list link updated

This updates (corrects) the link to a cue list for Sleepless in Seattle (2d edition, chapter 1).

 Link to the cue list.

(I was obliged to move the file to a different Google Drive when our university's contract with Google was updated last year. Apologies to those of you who tried and couldn't get access to the file about this time last year.)

administrative post: updated links to files

Early next year, Dropbox is changing the public folder to a shared folder. Therefore, I have moved all files that were formerly on Dropbox to Google Drive. Here is a list with the new links:

Guide to the blog Hearing the Movies: link.

Sleepless in Seattle cue list: link.

My research vita: link.

Words and Music in Sleepless in Seattle

In her note for the soundtrack CD, Nora Ephron, the director of Sleepless in Seattle, writes that "We had made a movie in which the words were as important as the pictures, and we wanted songs in which the words were as important as the music."

Song quotations can be used in a variety of ways, in both diegetic and nondiegetic contexts: as style topics, as references to time or place, to establish mood or pace—in other words, in all the same ways as original instrumental underscore. Beyond that, quotations involving a song's title or lyrics can make obvious references that are the verbal analogue to mickey-mousing—such as "In the Wee Small Hours of the Night" when Annie goes downstairs, unable to sleep beside a snoring Walter. Instrumental quotations, however, depend on a fund of cultural knowledge in viewers.

In this film, Ephron and her music director make sure that we always "get the connection": as she puts it using as an example "Bye Bye Blackbird," which eventually acquires considerable importance in the underscore as well: "'No one here can love or understand me' [Joe] Cocker sings, as Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan sit alone in the moonlight 3000 miles apart from one another; and as we cut back and forth between them, the music becomes the link, almost as if the song is going through both their minds."

Cue list for Sleepless in Seattle

Sleepless in Seattle has been a staple in my film classes from the time of its VHS release in 1993. One scene in particular—the one we call "Second Botched Meeting" in HtM, chapter 1—has remained valuable as an introduction to detailed soundtrack construction in service of narrative. However, I never did not get around to making a cue sheet for the entire film. That omission has now been filled. A PDF file is available here: Sleepless in Seattle cue list. NOTE: This link has been updated as of 30 June 2023.

As typically happens, I found the musical component of the film more complex than I remembered it from viewing. Nora Ephron's early films are well-known for their song quotations, of course, but Sleepless in Seattle also contains four original songs by Marc Shaiman, only one of which is in the credits list: "A Wink and a Smile." The other three are instrumental underscore cues that are written in traditional song form, and developed in later cues. I did not have access to a studio cue sheet and so I gave those three my own labels: "Sam & Jonah," "Magic," and "Anticipation." "Anticipation" is the music in the first part of the "Second Botched Meeting" scene and "Magic" is the slower music for the second part.

Thanks to University of Chicago professor Berthold Hoeckner for noticing and asking about the first appearance of "Magic," early in the film as Annie (Meg Ryan's character) tries on her mother's wedding dress. That alone wouldn't have been enough; but "Magic" is developed at length in scenes starting with Annie's computer search (about 50:00), so that it clearly is an associative theme (leitmotif) by the time of the "Second Botched Meeting."

I learned two things from this: (1) the fact that "Magic" is developed as a tango supports re-hearing the original version as a slow, nostalgic waltz; (2) "Magic" does indeed work as we describe it—empathically mirroring Annie's deflation in mood—but it adds to the moment the idea of the magic of first meeting.

First Week's Examples

I used the following examples for my first week of lectures, which were keyed to Ch. 1 of Hearing the Movies:  [Update 2 FEB 2018: location unchanged in the second edition]

I started with the scene from Catch Me If You Can (2002), discussed in the introduction to Part 1 (pp. 1-3) and again in Ch. 1 (pp. 7-8). I played the scene twice, with class discussion after each viewing. We then did a masking exercise, using the Second Botched Meeting sequence from Sleepless in Seattle, discussed on pp. 20-25. We first watched the sequence with no sound, and I had the students talk about what sort of sound they expected and why. We then watched the sequence with sound.

The second class—my class meets twice a week, 75 minutes for each class—we started with a masking exercise using the same scene from Sleepless, this time reversing the procedure, beginning by masking the image and then watching the sequence with image and sound. I led the class in discussion after each.

We then worked with part of the Waterloo Station sequence from The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), starting again with a masking exercise: first, no image (we did this twice); then, no sound track; then both together. In this case I divided the students into three groups and had the first group concentrate on the dialogue, the second group on the music, and the third on the effects. I instructed the first group to note the number and type of voices as well as tempo and dynamic of delivery; the second group to note the basic mood, tempo, dynamic and instrumentation for major points of change; and the third group to identify sound source or to describe sound as best as they could. I thought this example worked exceptionally well, and I would recommend the example.

The third example came from The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), discussed on pp. 11-12. Here, I had the students discuss the five types of music in the sequence and how they differed in narrative function: 1. the atmospheric music as Frodo awakens (this music also appears at the very beginning of the film over the New Line Cinema logo); 2. the "mythic" music accompanying Gandalf's flashback; 3. pastoral music accompanying the appearance of Sam; 4. enchanted vocal music for Rivendell; 5. pastoral music accompanying appearance of Bilbo.

The final example was simply a viewing of Boston Common Scene from Good Will Hunting (1997), pp. 25-30.