Sex and the City

Alexis Dromgoole

Sex and the City

 From a television show beloved by women, comes a movie that holds all of the same faces, scenery, and similar musical choices that the television show does.  By introducing the movie with the same orchestral introduction theme song as the television show, it reminds people why they love the show so much, and that this movie will capture women’s hearts yet again.  The classical introduction that Sex and the City is known for quickly fades into a new song created just for the movie called “Labels or Love”.  The songs title that’s repeated over and over again in the song gives all viewers, even those who haven’t seen the show before, a clear understanding of what the movie is all about: fashion and men.  From Louis Giannetti’s Understanding Movies: Sound we know that “…music can serve as a kind of overture to suggest the mood or spirit of the film as a whole.”   With the  monologue voice over of Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker)harmoniously resounding in front of the song during the introduction as usual, the audience is able to look into a window of Carrie’s private thoughts and her “real feelings” about the lives of these four women (Ginnetti 231).   From the two songs melding with the voice of the main character, the audience gets a good sense of the women, their lives and loves of fashion, and of course love.

 Speaking of love, any woman who says she doesn’t get chills during Carrie’s Vogue wedding dress photo shoot is lying.  With another original song created for the movie, “Click Flash”, you feel like you are in the photo shoot yourself.  As the line, “... picture perfect beautiful...” repeats itself you know that it is “picture perfect” that they chose that song for this scene.  This song further helps the audience be in tune with who Carrie is and the joy she is feeling because “characterization can even be more precise when lyrics are added to music” (Giannetti 217).   Any women would die to be in any sort of photo shoot, let alone a Vogue bridal couture shoot that makes even those who aren’t wearing a wedding dress, feel as if they are about to walk down the aisle.  Again, the strategically placed voice of Bradshaw resonates in and out over the music to navigate the emotions of the audience to match those of the characters.   

Since the television show has spanned over a decade or so, it wouldn’t be right to not include some of “the best of the 80’s” music, to quote Bradshaw, as a nod to the past, and the good times had by these four best friends.  Adding a hint of nostalgia as the friends help Carrie pack up her apartment, reminds those who have seen the television show of the fun memories that they have had with these characters.  For those who haven’t seen the show, it incorporates feelings of remembering a time from the past that everyone, no matter your age, knows was iconic and is immortal. The remainder of the film does a great job alternating between popular lyricized songs, and underscored music with no lyrics to contrast the various visually, and emotionally dramatic scenes in the movie.

 The ending music of the movie wraps up the whole film with a bow, and funnels both aspects of the movie, love and fashion, into the last few scenes of the four friends together that the audience sees. The final song of the movie, “All Dressed in Love”, is perfect to end this movie because it personifies the emotions of both of the themes of the film.  Borrowing from the idea of the composer for Moon, Clint Mansell, from the article Mood and Music, “The score is repetitive throughout a lot of the film,” and that idea applies here as well to reiterate the overall themes of the movie (Knoll A22). Expertly sung by Jennifer Hudson, a supporting actress in the film, the final song gives another finalization to the fact that Sex and the City makes every woman who watches it feel beautiful, and loved.  Whether that love comes from a significant other or a group of lifelong friends, it doesn’t matter; this song combines the two loves of women, and allows women to be “Carried” away by them.