As more details on the TIFF site emerge we have more music/film possibilities to look forward to. The first exciting find is the fact that Ohad Benchetrit of Broken Social Scene & Do Make Say Think composed the music cues to Canadian film, “Daydream Nation” which stars, Kat Dennings and Josh Lucas. If you don’t know the instrumental post-rock band of Do Make Say Think, you need to rectify that stat and their more experimental tendencies were a big influences on the nascent Broken Social Scene founded by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning and their sound has always been cinematic and soundtracky (DMST founder Charles Spearin was an early key member of BSS’ sprawling membership).
If you don’t know the talents of Benchetrit, you should also change that asap. He’s a multi-instrumentalist (saxophone and flute on top of the usual suspect instruments) and has also contributed to albums by fellow Canucks Feist, The Hidden Cameras and Charles Spearin’s solo works. Benchetrit is also a capable producer and produced several Broken Social Scene tracks (including a record that was scrapped circa 2004/05 recorded around the time of the self-titled record), including most recently, many moments on the more ambient and soundscapey record, Lo-Fi For The Dividing Nights. He previously scored the 2005 Canadian film, “A Simple Curve.”
It’s hard not to notice that that Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning has a strong relationship with fellow Canadian director Bruce McDonald (he essentially acted as the music supervisor/selector for the upcoming, “Hard Core Logo 2”) so it’s probably no surprise to hear he also wrote the score to McDonald’s “Trigger.” McDonald’s latest (watch some clips here) is the story of two rock n’ roll women who once shared a friendship, a band and a whole lot of chaos. He’s described it as “My Dinner With Andre”-esque as its mostly about two estranged women and bandmates who reconnect at dinner after years animosity. It stars Molly Parker and late Canadian character actress Tracy Wright, the wife of director/writer Don McKellar (who also has a part in the film, as does Sarah Polley). Both pictures will appear at the Toronto International Film Festival. If we’re lucky we’ll get to see them both.
The Bro Soc/Canning/McDonald relationship doesn’t end there and likely won’t any time soon. The Canning-lead version of BSS scored McDonald’s, “Tracey Fragments” in 2007 and the filmmaker recently released, “This Movie Is Broken,” a chaotic, but immersive concert doc of the collective tethered to a loose relationship narrative (read our review). If it’s not evident already, Broken Social Scene and its various tentacles have fully moved in film scoring business and that’s not going to stop any time soon. Canning and Drew recently contributed to the “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” score and soundtrack (the full band helped out on the latter) and they will actually have three films in attendance at the Toronto Film Festival this year. Their last musical-film moment for 2010 (probably) are the instrumental tunes penned for Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s “It’s A Kind of Funny Story.” There will be more, count on it. [TIFF/TIFF]
