Debussy on Film

Claude Debussy's music has been used in many films and television programs, from "The Birds" to "The Right Stuff," to the late Jack Horkheimer's astronomy program, "Star Gazer."  Here are two of my favorite uses of Debussy's most famous melody, "Clair de Lune."

The 1940 Disney film "Fantasia" originally included a sequence in the Florida Everglades set to "Clair de Lune." The first time I saw this animation, I honestly gasped out loud at its beauty.


Another sublime use of "Clair de Lune" is in the movie "Ocean's Eleven" (2001), as Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his crew stand in front of the Bellagio, basking in their audacious heist.


So, what are *your* favorite scenes of Debussy on film? --Nathan Cone

New Universal Logo, New Jerry Goldsmith Arrangement

Two of Hollywood's major film studios are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year, Paramount and Universal.  Along with a studio's storied film history comes decades of musical cues, including the famous fanfares that accompany the logos on-screen before a movie begins.  Franz Waxman wrote for Warner Bros., and Alfred Newman's 20th Century Fox Fanfare is perhaps the most widely recognized of all of these brief musical moments.

Today, Universal Pictures introduces a new version of its classic "globe" logo, along with a new arrangement of Jerry Goldsmith's classic score.

From Universal's press release trumpeting the new logo:

Award-winning film composer Brian Tyler (Fast and Furious franchise) provided a new arrangement of Jerry Goldsmith’s classic score, which has accompanied the logo since 1997.  The iconic theme of Goldsmith’s original composition remains, but the orchestration has been bolstered with a choir, new string parts and drum cadence utilizing world percussion instruments.

“We wanted to utilize the classic melody that we all know and bring it into the 21^st century, while still being very respectful of what Jerry Goldsmith did originally,” said Tyler.  “I wanted it to be a celebration of all the great movies Universal has done over the years—connecting the past to the present.”  

You can see the logo "in action" at screenings of DR. SUESS' THE LORAX, beginning today, and at subsequent Universal Pictures releases throughout this 100th anniversary year.

--Nathan Cone

Soundtrack Review: "The Artist"

This week, a minor controversy erupted online when Kim Novak, star of the 1958 film “Vertigo,” took out an advertisement in Hollywood trade publications to object to “The Artist,” an utterly charming silent film set during the transition from silents to talkies in the late 1920s and early 1930s.  In question was the film’s use of the “Love Theme” from “Vertigo,” a music cue so utterly and completely married to Hitchcock’s classic that while I found its use in “The Artist” unobjectionable, I did find myself listening to the music more than watching the movie for a few minutes!

Director Michel Hazanavicius has defended his use of the music, which is unfortunately overshadowing Ludovic Bource’s original music for the film. Bource’s score fills all but four of the tracks on the official soundtrack to “The Artist.” And while the soundtrack does not include the Bernard Herrmann cue from “Vertigo,” a sharp-eared listener will find references to Herrmann’s score for “Citizen Kane,” which are matched visually in the film, itself a loving tribute to the movies.

As befitting a silent film, the soundtrack opens with an overture, and then introduces the characters and setting through melodies that are alternately lush and romantic, or bouncy and jovial, evoking the happy-go-lucky era 1920s Hollywood – or, at least the way we thought it was.

Both “George Valentin” (named for the title character) and the “Fantasie D’Amour” are based on a jazzy riff that’ll put a spring in your step. The “Waltz for Peppy” is love in full bloom. Later in the score, we get to the long, linear lines of “In the Stairs,” as Valentin’s star begins to fade, and his love Peppy Miller ascends to superstardom as a singing, dancing, talking movie star.  It’s at the end of this cue that you may hear a faint echo of the opening chords of “Citizen Kane,” by Bernard Herrmann.

As the plot of “The Artist” develops, the music becomes a more urgent. Valentin, obsessed by his inability to keep up with the times, becomes despondent and almost does the unthinkable.  His plucky puppy comes through for him, and the film ends with a triumphant dance number. Bource’s music here is reminiscent of the classic big band sound favored by Benny Goodman and Fletcher Henderson, with a touch of Hollywood thrown in.

“The Artist” was one of my favorite movies of 2011, and had me smiling for most of its running time. The soundtrack is equally as magical to listen to!

--Nathan Cone

Soundtrack Review: "Shame"

The fifteen-track soundtrack to director Steve McQueen’s harrowing tale of sexual addiction, “Shame,” carries with it a melancholy mood, despite the appearance of party tunes like the Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” and Blondie’s “Rapture.”

Harry Escott’s original music for the film appears on three tracks, opening the album with the main character’s theme, “Brandon.” Escott’s music is characterized by slow-moving chords and an underlying melody from the low strings. There’s a persistent ticking in the background, and the high strings eventually take over the theme, which lasts about eight minutes.  Escott’s music is similarly structured in the cue “Unraveling,” and is limited to solo piano chords for the film’s “End Credits.”

The rest of the album is a mix of sounds that evoke the chilly world of wintertime in New York; Blondie and the Tom Tom Club are joined by Chic and Chet Baker; John Coltrane’s famous “My Favorite Things” is here, but it’s mysteriously upcut by a couple of piano notes by the disc’s sequencing.

Glenn Gould’s marvelous renditions of Bach hold the album together. In the movie, Brandon listens to Gould’s magic even as he sinks further into the abyss.

At the center of this soundtrack is actress Carey Mulligan’s naked rendition of “New York, New York.” The minor key and chromatic piano flourishes give way to a heartbreaking, a capella section as Mulligan struggles to hold the tune through tears, transforming the powerful anthem into a plea. It’s well worth the download (link above, and see trailer below for a sample).

--Nathan Cone

Soundtrack Review: "War Horse" and "Tintin"

Steven Spielberg has asked John Williams to score almost every single movie he’s ever directed since “Jaws,” which won Mr. Williams his second Oscar, and his first for Best Original Score.  It’s a working relationship that has lasted nearly 40 years, and given us some of the most memorable melodies of our time.

This holiday season, Spielberg is back with an unprecedented feat. He’s releasing two movies right on top of one another. “The Adventures of Tintin,” an animated adventure based on the Belgian comic, opens today, and “War Horse,” a period drama set in England and based on a stage play, opens on Christmas Day.  Williams was employed once again to create a unique atmosphere for each film.

Williams’ score for “War Horse” is sequenced on the soundtrack album programmatically. The early cues are pastoral, and evocative of the Dartmoor countryside. The music is ripe with Celtic influences, and a friend of mine even picked out a quote from an old Irish sea chantey. There are few big themes established, but the mood is set as a young boy takes in a steed named Joey.  Midway through the album, the mood turns more somber, as Joey is placed into service.  A solo trumpet passage is faintly evocative of a similar device in “Saving Private Ryan.” The biggest payoff for Williams fans comes in the final three tracks of the album, “The Reunion,” “Remembering Emilie,” and “The Homecoming.” All three are rich with those big melodies one expects from Williams.

For “The Adventures of Tintin,” Williams calls on his early jazz influences (he once played in a combo as Johnny Williams) and the grand scores of Korngold and Waxman that some say Williams built his career on aping. Personally, I think that Williams has at least distinguished himself from those other composers, even if there is a similarity. “Tintin” opens with a jazzy sound reminiscent of 1950s television sleuths, with a drummer using brushes to keep things hopping. Williams opens the orchestra up to allow unique colors like accordion and harpsichord to steal the spotlight.

I played the second track cold on the day the CD came in to the library at KPAC, and I wasn’t disappointed by the short and sparky “Snowy’s Theme,” representing Tintin’s loyal dog. Vertical runs by the orchestra are echoed by a solo piano at a fast clip. This is “Raiders”-esque high adventure, folks, and it’s a lot of fun.

Williams goes for mystery with some cues, and humor in others, such as a “shattering” guest turn by Renee Fleming.

Both “War Horse” and “Tintin” are welcome additions to the Williams canon, and “War Horse” seems a likely candidate for an Oscar nomination.

--Nathan Cone

The Tree of Life: Alterna-Soundtrack

by Nathan Cone

Probably my favorite movie I’ve seen so far this year, “The Tree of Life” approaches for me a kind of magical or spiritual experience. It was recently released on Blu-ray/DVD, and you can read my full review online at TPR.ORG, but I wanted to devote this post to the music included in the film.

“The Tree of Life” was scored by Alexandre Desplat, the Oscar-nominated composer of “The King’s Speech” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” But while his official soundtrack contains an hour of wonderful music, very little of it made it into the finished film. Director Terrence Malick’s style led him to create a pastiche of sound from Desplat as well as other composers, classic and contemporary. Indeed, the most memorable musical moments in the film feature the work of Zbigniew Preisner, Ottorino Respighi, and François Couperin, not Desplat. Malick leans heavily on choral and vocal works, not for their librettos, but I think because the sound of these works expresses spirituality in its greatest sense.

If you were as enchanted by the music of “The Tree of Life” as I, then look below for a helpful guide to some of the best musical moments in the film, and links to iTunes and Amazon’s mp3 store -- so you can recreate the soundtrack yourself at home. Enjoy!



Ottorino Respighi’s “Siciliana” from his “Ancient Airs and Dances” beautifully accompanies scenes of newly-married life in the film. Shortly after Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain’s first child is born, Gustav Holst’s “Hymn to Dionysus” is heard as Chastain introduces her young boy, Jack, to picture books and wooden toys on the lawn.

Zbigniew Preisner’s “Lacrimosa: Day of Tears” brings the otherworldly images of the film’s cosmic sequence to life.

The accidental drowning death of a young boy is hauntingly underscored by an excerpt from Gustav Mahler’s “Titan” Symphony.

Images of the early days on earth, as well as the heavenly finale, are scored with Berlioz’s “Requiem,” both the “Agnus Dei,” and the “Domine Jesu Christie.”

Both the film’s trailer and the movie itself make wonderful use of Bederich Smetena’s “The Moldau.” The music accompanies scenes of joyous family life.

Angela Hewitt’s rolling piano arrangement of François Couperin’s “Les Barricades Mystérieuses” is heard as Jessica Chastain’s narration implores audiences to help, love, and forgive one another.

The stern father (Brad Pitt) regrets getting sidetracked by life, unable to fulfill his dream of being a great classical musician. In one scene, he plays Brahms on the record player, praising Arturo Toscanini’s conducting.

The closing credits of the film roll as “Welcome Happy Morning” is heard. The gentle piano music is by composer Hanan Townshend, who was studying at UT-Austin during the production of “The Tree of Life.”

Two new DVD releases are a perfect pair

A painter may paint a picture, a composer may write a beautiful melody for solo piano, but in the world of the theater (and here I count motion pictures as well), one person may have a vision, but production is a collaborative art. W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan worked together on a total of 14 comic operas, of which “The Mikado” is far and away the most popular, and arguably the best. Two new releases from the Criterion Collection highlight the work of Gilbert and Sullivan in different ways. The 1939 screen adaptation of “The Mikado” is now on DVD and new to Blu-ray, and British director Mike Leigh’s “Topsy-Turvy” (1999) also gets a deluxe DVD and Blu-ray treatment. That film dramatizes the writing, production, and premiere of “The Mikado.”

It’s hard to explain the hold "The Mikado" had on popular culture at one point, but Gilbert and Sullivan tapped into a fascination for all things Eastern when they wrote the work. “The Mikado” was used to sell everything from lampshades to soap in the 1880s, and even into the late ‘30s, when the feature film of the opera was produced, "The Mikado" was being interpreted on stage in a myriad of different ways.

The DVD/Blu-ray release of “The Mikado” from Criterion includes several special features that enrich one’s experience of the film and the opera. Mike Leigh, whose film “Topsy-Turvy” recounts the original D’Oyly Carte production, offers his thoughts on the opera. And scholars Josephine Lee and Ralph MacPhail Jr. speak at length on the film, the history of “The Mikado,” and its comparison to what Japan was really like (answer: not much).

British director Mike Leigh, known for contemporary chamber dramas, was looking for a way to tell a story about “what we do,” he says, referring to the world of film and the theater. To do so, he turned to the famous partnership between lyricist W. S. Gilbert and composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. Leigh says on the commentary track that accompanies “Topsy-Turvy” on DVD and Blu-ray that he was amazed by how much blood and sweat they poured in to something that was so trivial as their 14 operettas, that were among the most popular works of their day. But of course they’re not entirely trivial; Gilbert and Sullivan used their fanciful settings to satirize and mock the establishment.

François Truffaut once said that movies should express either the joy of making cinema or the agony of it. In the case of “Topsy-Turvy,” agony may be too strong a word. An artist's life can be a lonely and melancholy one, even as in the midst of public adulation. And it's hard work. Agony or joy? Perhaps it’s a little of both at the same time.

Read the full reviews of "Topsy-Turvy" and "The Mikado" online here: http://www.tpr.org/articles/2011/03/cinema-mikado.html

[Still from "Topsy-Turvy" courtesty of The Criterion Collection]

--Nathan Cone

Classical on Hulu

Having a little time off host John Clare stumble upon some great classical movies and performances online...here are two wonderful examples on Hulu:
The entire War Requiem by Benjamin Britten, with a film by Derek Jarman


Also, this classic 1939 movie featuring Jascha Heifetz (including music by Mendelssohn, Saint-Saens and more!) They Shall Have Music

Wild to see Walter Brennan as a conductor (he doesn't do too bad!) instead of a cowboy!