IQ 451

Main Menu

  • Bruce Springsteen
  • Christina Aguilera
  • Radiohead
  • David Bowie
  • Financial

IQ 451

Header Banner

IQ 451

  • Bruce Springsteen
  • Christina Aguilera
  • Radiohead
  • David Bowie
  • Financial
Radiohead
Home›Radiohead›What connects Drive My Car to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood? | Culture

What connects Drive My Car to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood? | Culture

By Leon C. Beard
November 20, 2021
0
0


Beep beep, yeah

Drive my car the new film by Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, has been well received in Cannes (five stars!) and has just landed in UK theaters. The “mysterious and beautiful” story of a director grappling with art and infidelity is based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, from his Men Without Women collection.

Drive My Car was inspired by a short story by Haruki Murakami… Photograph: EPA

Page on screen

There have been many adaptations of the work of the beloved Japanese author. A recent star is Burning, named one of the Guardian’s best movies of 2019 (streaming options here). The unsettling thriller moves the location of Murakami’s Japan to director Lee Chang-dong’s South Korea. Expect an evil performance from Steven Yeun (seen later in Minari).

Steven Yeun, Burn, 2018.
… Just like Burning, with Steven Yeun… Photography: Allstar

Noise, fury, etc …

The film shortens the title of Murakami’s original short story, Barn Burning – and both nod to a story of the same name by William Faulkner, published in 1939. Faulkner is no stranger to cinema, either. ‘being turned to screenwriting for money during the heyday of Hollywood. (although he didn’t consider it as golden – Barton Fink of the Coen brothers offers a dark view of Faulkner’s experiences).

John Turturro in Barton Fink, 1991.
… Which nods to another story of William Faulkner, whose time in Hollywood was captured in Barton Fink. Photography: Allstar

Get the Humph

Faulkner was one of three writers in the 1946 film adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, the gold standard for black detective mysteries – on the page and on the screen. The shadow cast by Chandler is big: Robert Altman’s polarizing / brilliant adaptation of The Long Goodbye (Rent / Buy on Amazon) updates Philip Marlowe’s character with an ironic, exhausted tilt – and a perfect dose of Elliott Gould from the 1970s.

Elliott Gould in The Long Goodbye, 1973.
Elliott Gould in The Long Goodbye, adapted from the novel by Raymond Chandler – Murakami’s favorite writer. Photography: Allstar

After the detectives

Murakami said Chandler was his favorite writer – and translated his work into Japanese. Meanwhile, Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 novel Inherent Vice riffed on LA detective fiction (and pretty much everything else) – Paul Thomas Anderson’s film version (streaming options here) came with a score of Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. The composer also wrote the music for the 2010 adaptation of Norwegian Wood, the 1987 novel that made Murakami a literary superstar. Between them, Jonny and Haruki have this matter sewn up.

Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood performs in Manchester in July 2017.
Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, who wrote the score for Murakami’s novel Norwegian Wood. Photograph: Getty Images

Pairing Notes

Read Murakami’s love for jazz, vinyl, the Beatles and jogging is well documented: less well known is his extensive collection of T-shirts, the subject of a new collection of essays, Murakami T.

To eat Murakami’s characters eat a lot, which makes the reader want to eat too: start soaking up his debut novel After Dark, opening up in a Denny’s with an order of chicken salad and crispy toast.

Black and white cartoon rabbits disappearing into their holes through a red line


Related posts:

  1. 1 rock star stole the Beatles’ ideas before working with Paul McCartney
  2. 2 minutes with … Frauke Tiemann, ECD at David & Goliath
  3. 6 Boston artists create stunning spring songs
  4. Government says ‘words won’t save careers’ in Brexit visa tour fiasco

Recent Posts

  • Jamaican dancehall star Shenseea is Connecticut Sun’s 2022 Music Ambassador – Hoopfeed.com
  • Apple Music’s ‘Essential Anniversaries’ Explore Radiohead’s Famous ‘Computer OK’
  • the Ukrainian rock star performs in front of the troops; music boosts morale in times of war
  • Why You Don’t See Adam Levine on Vocals Anymore
  • What Soundgarden Members Have Been Up To Since Chris Cornell’s Death

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021

Categories

  • Bruce Springsteen
  • Christina Aguilera
  • David Bowie
  • Financial
  • Radiohead
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy