Tarantino is a case in point, but there are many others including Woody Allen, Wong Kar-wai, and Pedro Almodóvar. Wong Kar-wai has described the choice of music as among the first and most determining decisions he makes in preproduction. For Chungking Express (1994), he did not yet have a script when he described the project to his cinematographer by playing The Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’,” a song that plays a key role in the film.
