The time­less cin­e­mat­ic appeal of Joni Mitchell’s ​‘Both Sides Now’

At the end of Joni Mitchell’s sec­ond album, ​‘Clouds’, sits the melan­cholic mas­ter­piece ​‘Both Sides Now’. The musi­cal embod­i­ment of smil­ing through tears, the song’s yearn­ing melody was des­tined for cin­e­mat­ic sound­tracks. Its wist­ful lyri­cism evokes themes that are at once mal­leable and uni­ver­sal, mak­ing it fit com­fort­ably into any genre, from indie hor­ror to teen dra­ma. Here’s a look back at how this time­less nee­dle-drop has been deployed on screen.

Most recent­ly, Mitchell’s endur­ing bal­lad plays a piv­otal role in Sian Heder’s com­ing-of-age dra­ma CODA. From an acoustic gui­tar duet to a piano-accom­pa­nied solo bal­lad, each time Ruby (Emil­ia Jones) per­forms ​‘Both Sides Now’ her vocal inflex­ion grows bold­er as she finds new mean­ing in the way Mitchell cap­tures the sen­ti­men­tal­i­ty of grow­ing up.

Richard Cur­tis’ Love, Actu­al­ly can lay claim to giv­ing ​‘Both Sides Now’ its most famous cin­e­mat­ic cameo. After receiv­ing a Joni Mitchell CD from her hus­band (Alan Rick­man), con­firm­ing his affair, Karen (Emma Thomp­son) retreats to her bed­room as the orches­tral swell of ​‘Both Sides Now’ sound­tracks her falling tears. The song’s rous­ing embod­i­ment of loss, heart­break and reflec­tion come crash­ing into the frame as Thomp­son deliv­ers a dev­as­tat­ing act­ing masterclass.

‘Both Sides Now’ orig­i­nal­ly had a big­ger part in Dan­ny Boyle’s Steve Jobs biopic, but the song still serves as a sym­bol­ic plot point for the film’s strained father-daugh­ter rela­tion­ship. Jobs’ nine-year-old daugh­ter lis­tens to a loop of both the orig­i­nal and re-record­ed ver­sions of ​‘Both Sides Now’, mus­ing that the first is ​“girl­ish” while the sec­ond is ​“regret­ful”. That lat­ter adjec­tive, uttered as she stares down her absent father, exem­pli­fies their tan­gled rela­tion­ship and lost time.

By far the most unex­pect­ed use of ​‘Both Sides Now’ comes in Ari Aster’s super­nat­ur­al psy­cho­log­i­cal hor­ror Hered­i­tary. As the film cuts to black fol­low­ing its bone-chill­ing con­clu­sion, Judy Collins’ chirpy cov­er ver­sion begins to play over the cred­its. If the harp­si­chord chimes ini­tial­ly seem to jar with the film’s bleak tone, Mitchell’s mourn­ful, world-weary lyrics couldn’t be more apt.

A few months after Hereditary’s cred­its rolled, Collins’ cov­er of ​‘Both Sides Now’ appeared in the teas­er trail­er for the fourth instal­ment in Disney-Pixar’s Toy Sto­ry series. All the famil­iar char­ac­ters are hold­ing hands with blue sky and per­fect­ly fluffy clouds behind them. ​“I real­ly don’t know clouds at all”; the last line before Forky breaks the chain and the toys go fly­ing. The gen­tle melody is lul­la­by-like and a pang of nos­tal­gia for old­er viewers.

The sun is set­ting over the ocean’s hori­zon as George (Kevin Kline), a can­cer-strick­en archi­tect rebuild­ing his home, and his ex-wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) slow-dance to Joni Mitchell, their sil­hou­ettes sway­ing in the house’s skele­ton. Although there’s a hint of sor­row here, it’s an uplift­ing sequence. As Mitchell promis­es ​“something’s lost and something’s gained in liv­ing every day,” George and Robin hold each oth­er close.

It’s hard to dis­like Tom Han­ks but he’s walk­ing on thin ice when mock­ing the lyrics of ​‘Both Sides Now’, pro­claim­ing ​“I could nev­er be with some­one who likes Joni Mitchell,” the favourite singer of Meg Ryan’s char­ac­ter. While Han­ks’ pro­tag­o­nist fails to under­stand Mitchell’s penned dual­i­ties of love and life – the ​“up and down,” ​“give and take,” ​“win and lose” – the vers­es per­fect­ly encap­su­late the push-pull of this rom-com relationship.