10 Movies With Unexpectedly Brilliant Soundtracks

Fans of the soundtracks to Sofia Coppola's first two films were disappointed to hear that her third movie would be a period piece, centring on the life of French monarch Marie Antoinette. It's not that period films can't have great soundtracks, but they don't, for obvious reasons, tend to feature contemporary music. And Coppola had proved herself to be particularly brilliant at selecting contemporary music in Lost In Translation.

But Coppola surprised fans by announcing that Marie Antoinette would have a contemporary soundtrack. 

Opinion on whether this move undermined the film is divided, but there's no denying that, on its own merit, the soundtrack is sublime. A lot of the music is from the 1980s, with an emphasis on English new wave, featuring bands like Adam and the Ants and New Order. But even the more modern bands, like the Radio Dept., would have fit perfectly into the '80s.

Coppola and producer Brian Reitzell took well-known bands, like the Strokes and the Cure, and mine their back catalogues for hidden gems. The two Cure cuts, "Plainsong" and "All Cats Are Grey", are more atmosphere than song anyway, making them perfect soundtrack pieces. And then there are classics like Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" and Siouxsie & the Banshees' "Hong Kong Garden". It might not be appropriate, but the best things never are.