'She Smiled Sweetly / Ruby Tuesday' (The Rolling Stones)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2002)
It's said that Jackson Browne, watching The Royal Tenenbaums, was so transported watching the "These Days" sequence that he thought wistfully, "this guy plays like I used to play." And then he realized - it is me. Wes Anderson's brilliant use of the Nico original galvanized and reinvented the song even for Jackson Browne, who now plays the song in its original mode at his live performances. All this, because Anderson picked the right song, the right camera speed and the perfect actors to play Margot and Richie Tenenbaum. It aches. And there is another stunning music-in-movies moment just around the corner in Tenenbaums, when Anderson busts out The Rolling Stones.
Margot and Richie have finally escaped to be alone under a tent with a record player. Their music choice is a vinyl (hooray) copy of Between The Buttons. Anderson lets the album track in the long unrequited love scene between the two. (Sadly, they're adoptive siblings) When "She Smiled Sweetly" flows into "Ruby Tuesday," even though Wes is re-sequencing the album, the result is an left-hook of deeper emotion. Now this already wonderful scene takes off into true greatness. Many a director has tried to use "Ruby Tuesday," the evocative Brian Jones/Stones classic, and failed. Wes solves the problem by letting you hear it the way the way you'd hear it in life; devastating and random in the way it pops up, innocently requiring you to remember the moment forever.
-cameron crowe
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