Jonathan Levine Quotes

Music is the subliminal connecting adhesive in film, or at least in narrative feature films.

The experience of a film is immersive, and music is supposed to underline and help that experience.

'New Jack City' was a perfect marriage of music and film. They used a lot of musicians: myself, Christopher Williams. People that were popular because of their music were given the chance to act. And the soundtrack was incredible.

I don't listen to music when I write, but I do turn on appropriate music when I read portions of my manuscripts back to myself - kind of like adding a soundtrack to help shape mood.

I'd love to do a whole soundtrack to a movie.

In film, I was surprised when I first saw the movie 'Drive.' I said, 'Oh, God. It sounds great - I love it. Wow, this could be the soundtrack from 'American Gigolo' or 'Cat People.' But I'm surprised that the director would agree with a composer to write that kind of sound.

That's what I love about those old movies - the music is like a constant companion. Even in scenes that aren't particularly dramatic, like a woman checking her watch, you hear the music as a comment on that action.

Music is half the film.

I listen to music cinematically. I think about music and how it would make me feel when it's put to an image, a moving image, and I love it.

I always related my favorite music to the movies.

To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I'm writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I'm going to play for the opening sequence.

I don't know - music in film, for me, is not another part of a soundtrack; it is something that also helps to approach a character, to foresee the type of image - you see what I mean - it's like a part of the process.

I start with the music before I start writing the movie. It's such an important part for me, emotionally, to set up the tone for the movie.

Just the textures of things are really important to me as I'm writing; I think atmospherics and visuals can have such emotional impact if you can harness the thematic thread between how scenes look and how your characters feel. I like to tug on that thread.

'Teen Spirit' is a celebration of the power that music can deliver to the cinematic experience.

Storytelling is powerful; film particularly. We can know a lot of things intellectually, but humans really live on storytelling. Primarily with ourselves; we're all stories of our own narrative.

When you go into something like a space movie, you think there's going to be no music or little music.

Any time I approach a scene, it's not just what's on the page - it's how the camera's going to show or not show what's on the page. It's which character are we going to align with and what music is going to be playing.

In 'Secret Life of Pets,' it's a huge orchestra - really, really big.

Music is a big part of the director's life; Ms. Coppola's previous feature, a screen adaptation of 'The Virgin Suicides,' was informed more substantially by the score by the group Air than by the narrative.

I have always been fascinated by the way music can completely change the way you watch film - and how you feel as you watch the images.

Some films that I love, I love them also because of the music. 'Vertigo,' for example, is a movie where the music is doing 70 percent of the job.

The background score plays an important role in black comedies.

The use of music in 'Gloria' is not cynical.

If you watch a film without music, there's nothing that you can connect with.