Musical herdism is alive and well in movie trailers. We recently noted that the Godspeed-like theme to “28 Days Later,” had surpassed the Clint Mansell “Requiem For a Dream” theme as the new dark and scary tune to boost your trailer scare and drama quotient.
But has the theme to Brazil – Aquarela do Brasil” (“Watercolor of Brazil”) by Ary Barroso – become the new trailer theme for the goofy, surreal and wacky set? Vulture has a great piece that notes the appropriation of the theme made famous in the Terry Gilliam 1984-like totalitarian comedy,
They note that recent trailers for “Bee Movie,” “Sicko” and “Wall-E,” all borrow this theme (as does a Visa Check Card ad). As they write, “Once in a while, every advertising firm and trailer house in the country decides to license the exact same song at the exact same time.” They said a mouthful. Maybe Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hills” will come back into vogue soon.
One pop cultural moment they forgot though. The Arcade Fire covered “Brazil,” in 2004 as the flipside to their “Cold Wind” single. The disgustingly slick version by the Ray Coniff singers is pretty delightful to in that we’re very happy and disturbed way, which we suppose is the way the song is meant to be heard.
Download: Arcade Fire – “Brazil”
Download: The Ray Coniff singers – “Brazil”