Scene and Heard: “Head Over Heels” for the “Love Story” Trailer
It’s a magical moment when the pairing of audio and visuals in a film or television scene fits just beautifully. In this post entitled, “Scene and Heard,” let’s take a look, and listen, to the trailer for the popular, ’90s nostalgia-infused limited series, “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.”
As the trailer begins, somber-sounding piano keys can be heard, and for many ’80-music fans out there, it likely doesn’t take too long to decipher the melody line, albeit at a slower pace, as the one featured in the Tears For Fears’ hit, “Head Over Heels,” from their 1985 album, Songs from the Big Chair. Then comes the opening lyric: “I wanted to be with you alone/And talk about the weather,” which plays over the scene where the character of fashion designer, Calvin Klein introduces Carolyn, Klein’s employee, to John at a fundraising benefit… let the chemistry between John and Carolyn commence. In a room full of people, John immediately just wants to be alone with Carolyn. With regard to the vocals, however, those familiar with the Tears For Fears’ track will notice that Roland Orzabal is not on lead; the song in the trailer features a female voice, which belongs to Michelle Zauner from the indie-pop band, Japanese Breakfast, who recorded this ballad-style cover back in 2019.
The bond between sound and vision continues effectively throughout the trailer. For example:
“I’m lost in admiration/Could I need you this much?” plays over a scene when John walks through the halls of the Calvin Klein office, with some employees glancing, most staring. All admire him, but he admires only one in return: Carolyn.
“Something happens and I’m head over heels” can be heard over a clip of Carolyn and John longingly looking at each other at the end of their first date.
“I made a fire, and watching it burn/I thought of your future” takes on an even more grim, haunting feel, with scenes of John and Carolyn arriving at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port; a formal dinner at the home; John and Carolyn in New York, posing for a mob of photographers. Also at one point, Carolyn says to John: “There’s your world, and then there’s mine.” Intense orchestral strings signify increased tension in the relationship as the relentless paparazzi begin to surround the couple, taking its toll, especially on Carolyn. The world she built for herself as a smart, confident, career-oriented woman is seemingly getting smaller and smaller. As the character of Kelly Klein states to Carolyn earlier in the trailer: “There’s a lot of tradeoffs being with someone like that.” And Calvin himself offers to Carolyn his take on life in the public eye: “Fame takes some things away from you, but it gives you more.” By trailer’s end and title card, there’s a return to the somber-sounding piano keys. The trailer entices and allures, and sums up through sights and sounds, the head-over-heels fairytale love story of John and Carolyn, one with its share of tears and fears.
And from the ‘90s to the ‘80s: Tears For Fears’ “Head Over Heels”:
The Weeknd: “Secrets”: Lies, Eyes and ‘80s Samples
To anyone who remembers the ‘80s, the latest from The Weeknd, entitled “Secrets,” is a trip down memory lane. Lyrics in its chorus are pulled from The Romantics’ 1983 hit, “Talking in Your Sleep”; the transition from chorus to verse includes a direct pickup from Tears for Fears’ 1983 song, “Pale Shelter,” more specifically Curt Smith’s high-vocal climb of the lyric, “completely in command.”
The video, filmed in part at the Toronto Reference Library, sets a cold, barren tone to match the lyrical content that tells of a relationship full of lies, revealed “every time you close your eyes.” Ominous male figures in capes, which the female lead later runs away from, are perhaps indicative of her past catching up to her. Low-angle camera shots of these suitors, peering over balconies are reminiscent, in part, of the masquerade-ball scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 film, Eyes Wide Shut. Use of deep red and the blossoming white bed that creates various geometric shapes also evoke other Kubrickian imagery.