Topless Women Talk About Their Lives isn’t a film about bands, or indeed about people who are particularly driven creatively, with the exception of Ant (Ian Hughes) whose character makes his own movie of the same name. It’s no surprise, though, that a film chronicling the lives of quasi-bohemian inner-city Auckland 20-somethings in the 90s is infused with music, nor that their lives are soundtracked by the catalogue of Flying Nun. OK, Joel Tobeck spends plenty of time wearing a Soundgarden t-shirt, but it’s safe to assume that even if offshore music was to fit director Harry Sinclair’s aesthetic, this may have been ever so slightly out of financial grasp.
While it’s up there with the best Flying Nun compilations, there’s no Verlaines, no Look Blue Go Purple, no Gordons/Bailterspace, no JPSE, no Headless Chickens, no Able Tasmans… But unlike the majority of movie soundtracks, nearly every song on the CD appears in the film with a sense of purpose – they certainly don’t seem to be arbitrarily shoehorned in.
The few exceptions to the above do rank among Flying Nun’s “greatest hits” though – The Chills’ ‘I Love My Leather Jacket’ doesn’t appear in the film (though ‘Submarine Bells’ does) and neither do Straitjacket Fits’ ‘She Speeds’ or ‘Down in Splendour’.
Hey, 11 out of 14 ain’t bad, though it would have been great if King Loser and S.P.U.D. had made the transition from film to CD…
So why’s it so good? For me, it’s because the music is woven into the film so well. Superette’s melancholic ‘Waves’, the 3Ds’ unsettling ‘Animal’ and The Clean’s urgent ‘Fish’ appear multiple times in the film, like recurring motifs from a traditional score would. Chris Knox’s ‘Not Given Lightly’ might be heard at many weddings, but here plays while Danielle Cormack confesses on the phone to her friend that her recent declaration of love was a lie. And elsewhere, even when it’s the Dunedin Sound, it just feels right in empty, dreary Auckland.
That’s probably because it captures the late 90s Auckland I grew up in as I remember seeing it reflected in culture – if not my life – at that time. As the 3Ds say in a song featured in the film that didn’t make the CD either, “I dream of a time, I dream of a place” (ok, this was recorded in Port Chalmers and the band was from Dunedin but please let me quote selectively for my own purposes).
Check out the soundtrack’s songs below, and watch the film here.
The 3Ds – Hey Seuss
The Bats – North by North
The Clean – Anything Could Happen
The 3Ds – Animal
Superette – Saskatchewan
Snapper – Buddy
The Chills – I Love My Leather Jacket
Straitjacket Fits – Down in Splendour
The Clean – Point That Thing Somewhere Else
Superette – Waves
Straitjacket Fits – She Speeds
The Clean – Fish
The 3Ds – Spooky
Chris Knox – Not Given Lightly
This story is part of our month-long celebration of 40 years of NZ film. Follow all our daily coverage here.
