Soundtracking with Juliette Lewis Issue #41

The former VZ cover girl and all-around ferocious rocker breaks down her new album — with a little help from some classic films

By Selena Fragassi
Published: August 1st, 2009 | 12:00am

Juliette Lewis has found herself a new role — solo artist. After parting with her band the Licks earlier this year, Lewis is back with Terra Incognita, which translates to “unknown territory.” As the musician-actress explains, “It’s where I wanted to go sonically, in my life, as an artist — to be more vulnerable but more raw and rough, too. I live in extremes so I’m as vulnerable as I am strong.”

Lewis says she originally bonded with producer Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (the Mars Volta) over a shared love of Fellini movies. “Music and cinema go hand-in-hand,” she says, “so a lot of sounds on this record, for me, are very visual.” In the spirit of our Screen issue, we put Lewis to the test and asked her to pick five songs on Terra that could score classic movies:

1.“Romeo”/ Bitter Moon
“Bitter Moon is this twisted love story about the obsession of chasing an illusion. This guy in the movie is in love with a girl he sees on a train one day, but there’s also a boat and water. The opening lyrics of “Romeo,” which I wrote after visiting the south of France, are: ‘Across the sea, you followed me,’ and it’s about that distance with really dreamy guitars. “

2. “Noche Sin Fin” / Midnight Express
“It starts with crazy drumming and features a tirade of lyrics that are really about surviving the depths of despair. I think it would be perfect for Midnight Express, one of my favorite movies. It’s about a guy who tries to smuggle hash into Turkey and he gets locked in a Turkish prison for seven years, goes crazy, and is raped. It’s horrific, but he survives!”

3. “Hard Lovin’ Woman”/ The Rose
“This is my blues song. It’s just guitar and vocals, and I would put this with The Rose starring Bette Midler. It’s loosely based on Janis Joplin’s life, and I could picture Janis or some other hard ovin’ woman singing it.”

4. “Ghosts”/ Frances
“Jessica Lange gives one of the greatest female performances you’ll ever see in this movie. The song “Ghosts” is about the end of a friendship but being haunted by that past, and I thought it would be a sentiment that the lead character Frances would share.”

5. “Female Persecution”/ The Piano
“When I was writing this song ... I thought of all the female history — the sinister element, the Bible, all of the crosses we bear. I related this song to The Piano starring Holly Hunter, another one of those great performances. She never speaks in the entire movie. She was an artist and a mute who could only express herself through piano and lived in this world of alienation. I really feel that on my song.”

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Juliette Lewis on her Top 5 film soundtracks:

1.    9 1/2 Weeks   “It’s sexy and fun. I listened to it all the time when I was 18.”

2.    Rocky Horror Picture Show   “This movie is so camp and funny but has really good rocknroll music. One of the greatest musicals ever that’s close to my heart.”

3.    Fame “I would often practice singing to ‘Out Here On My Own,’ and ‘I Sing the Body Electric.’”

4.    The Thin Red Line   “The music makes me cry. It’s so profoundly moving.”

5.    There Will Be Blood    “It’s so fucking radical. Jonny Greenwood puts you in this dizzying, unsettling atmosphere of the lead character. It’s musically not what I’d expect at all for that film which is why it makes sense.”