Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Film Music

Dystopian Visions in Film Scores

If you think the world is in rough shape now, consider tomorrow.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” gaze into the crystal ball for an hour of dystopian visions – glimpses of a bleak future rendered hopeful, in large part, through music.

“Fahrenheit 451” (1966), based on the Ray Bradbury novel, presents a society in which books are outlawed by the state and burned as a means to control the masses. The title refers to the temperature at which paper will ignite. Oskar Werner and Julie Christie star in this Francois Truffaut-directed film. Composer Bernard Herrmann finds the heart at fire’s center.

A robot is left behind to clean up a long-abandoned Planet Earth, in “WALL-E” (2008), one of Pixar’s finely-crafted entertainments. This one has a serious subtext, about rampant consumerism and its impact on an earth made uninhabitable by the sheer volume of garbage. But there’s also a love story, as WALL-E pursues another robot into outer space, with fate-changing consequences. The inventive score is by Thomas Newman.

As dystopias go, Steven Spielberg’s “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence” (2001) is a little more unpleasant than most. “A.I.” grew out of an incomplete project of Stanley Kubrick. Based on Brian Aldiss’s short story, “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long,” the film stars Haley Joel Osment as a child-like android programmed to love, only to be rejected by his adopted family. Abrasive blood sport, unpleasant visions of a debauched city, and human extinction ensue. A great time is had by all!

Also, the film doesn’t know when to end. Oh, how I hate this movie.

That said, John Williams gives it his usual best. The voice of soprano Barbara Bonney graces the admittedly gorgeous soundtrack.

One of the landmarks of silent cinema, Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” (1927) is an eerily prescient vision of a world divided between the “haves” and “have-nots.” Once seen, the subterranean hell of the workers “hive” is not soon to be forgotten. So much of the film continues to resonate, even as its iconography is shamelessly recycled.

Gottfried Huppertz’s original score already adheres to the Straussian model of Golden Age film scores, with leitmotifs representing the characters and ideas. It’s a concept that became associated with Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and which has had an enormous influence on film composers down through the decades, all the way to John Williams and beyond.

Learn more about the challenges of writing such a complex score – which was performed live, with orchestra, at showings of the movie, even as the film was still being edited right up until its premiere – when listening to tonight’s show.

In the meantime, hang on to your humanity! Join me for these cautionary tales about totalitarian government, corporate control, and technology gone awry, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

January 14, 2023
Vaughan Williams Film Music Celebration

It’s a Vaughan Williams weekend, as we anticipate the sesquicentennial of the composer’s birth on October 12, 1872!

First, “Scott of the Antarctic” (1948) anchors an hour of music from movies about explorers and exploration on “Picture Perfect.”

John Mills plays explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his determined push to the reach the South Pole in this Ealing Studios docudrama.

Vaughan Williams’ classic score became the basis for his Symphony No. 7, which he called “Sinfonia Antartica.” (Note the Italian spelling; the composer dropped the first “c” from the title of his symphony, dooming the work to incessant misspelling.) We’ll hear selections from an extended suite from the film score, from the first of three CDs issued on the Chandos label that, collectively, offer an overview of Vaughan Williams’ work for the cinema.

The balance of the hour will be devoted to music from films about Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, and Meriwether Lewis & William Clark.

Yeah, okay, so conquest is so not “in” right now. Nevertheless, as Monday is Columbus Day, we’ll hear a suite from “Christopher Columbus” (1949), a Gainsborough Pictures release. Fredric March plays the title role, in a film inspired by a novel of Rafael Sabatini (author of “Scaramouche” and “The Sea Hawk”).

The music is by Arthur Bliss, who in 1950 would receive his knighthood and, in 1953, his appointment as Master of the Queen’s Music.

If you think March a strange choice to play Columbus, just imagine Gary Cooper in “The Adventures of Marco Polo” (1938). Cooper assumes the role of the famed Venetian merchant who travels the Silk Road to China. Despite the ludicrous casting, the film yet manages to entertain, with Basil Rathbone, fine as always, as the villain.

The music is by Hugo Friedhofer. Friedhofer was such a successful orchestrator, he remained largely in the shadows of the film score luminaries he assisted. He lent his distinctive touch to many now-classic scores by Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. “The Adventures of Marco Polo” was Freidhofer’s first big chance to step up and show what he could do as a composer. He would have to wait until 1942 for another. It wasn’t until 1946 that he won a much-deserved Academy Award for his score to “The Best Years of Our Lives.”

The westward journey of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark has been a source of perpetual fascination for Americans. In 1997, Ken Burns directed a PBS documentary “Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery.” National Geographic climbed on board a few years later with “Lewis and Clark: Great Journey West” (2002). The 42-minute featurette was released in IMAX theaters, with narration by Jeff Bridges and music by Sam Cardon.

Corn and tomatoes from the New World! Spaghetti and fireworks from the Orient! Snow cones and frostbite from the Antarctic! Discover explorers and exploration this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Then tune in on Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, for more Vaughan Williams on “The Lost Chord,” as the composer conducts his own music in three rare recordings. I’ll post more about that tomorrow.

We’re gearing up for 150 years of RVW, on the silver screen and in the concert hall. Happy birthday, Ralph Vaughan Williams!

October 8, 2022
Chivalry in Film Music Picture Perfect

The term “chivalry” conjures images of knights in armor, of courtly behavior, of bravery, honor, courtesy, moral virtue, and willingness to defend the weak. For the average filmmaker and moviegoer, that likely translates into spectacle and adventure.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll sample scores from movies that celebrate or circumvent the code and listen to selections from “The Warlord” (Jerome Moross), “El Cid” (Miklós Rózsa), “Lionheart” (Jerry Goldsmith), and “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (Erich Wolfgang Korngold).

Chivalry is not dead! We embark on another crusade for worthy film music, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org!

Robin is a bold rascal:

August 20, 2022
Summer Film Music from Europe

With several weeks left in August, there’s still time for a quick European vacation. This week on “Picture Perfect,” we glance across the pond for an hour of music from foreign films with summer settings.

“A Summer Story” (1988), based on a tale by John Galsworthy, tells of a young London lawyer and a farm girl who fall profoundly in love at the turn of last century. Georges Delerue provides the poignant score.

The juxtaposition of “Igmar Bergman” and “comedy” may seem like something of an oxymoron, but the dour Swede’s “Smiles of a Summer Night” (1955) proves to be a witty examination of the folly of the human heart. Frequent Bergman collaborator Erik Nordgren wrote the music.

Director Yves Robert adapted the memoirs of Marcel Pagnol, who spent his childhood summers in the south of France, into two lovely films, “My Father’s Glory” and “My Mother’s Castle” (1990). We’ll hear music composed for both by Vladimir Cosma. Pagnol’s experiences in Provence marked him for life, informing the films and writings of his maturity, including “The Baker’s Wife,” and “Jean de Florette.”

Finally, we’ll have a generous sampling from one of Ennio Morricone’s most beloved scores, that for “Cinema Paradiso” (1988). “Cinema Paradiso,” set in a post-war Sicily where it seems always to be summer, is a nostalgic paean to the shared experience of film and the significance it holds in our lives. It won a special jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was honored with an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

Music is the universal language. I hope you’ll join me for summer overseas on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

August 13, 2022
Bond Theme Fight Who Really Wrote It?

I wonder if Monty Norman and John Barry are fist fighting in heaven? The surf guitar and swinging brass of the James Bond theme repeatedly landed composer Norman and arranger Barry in court, as they grappled for the rights to this exceptionally lucrative tune. The courts found for Norman, but Barry, who died in 2011 at the age of 77, did okay for himself, as five-time Academy Award winning composer of “Born Free” (song and score), “The Lion in Winter,” “Out of Africa,” and “Dances with Wolves.”

Admittedly, Bond has one of the coolest, catchiest themes in the history of cinema. In a bizarre twist, Norman revealed he had actually come up with the tune for an earlier project, an abandoned musical based on V.S. Naipaul’s “A House for Mr. Biswas.” See if you can imagine this as the theme for the world’s greatest superspy, or if it comes across as some sort of practical joke.

Whatever alchemy these two musicians shared, we can all be thankful. R.I.P. Monty Norman, dead at 94.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-62122982

July 11, 2022

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