Thanks for the link.
All this talk, and hearing the love theme in that clip makes me want
to see it.
Vertigo that is, and for the umpteenth time.
Wherein lies one of the reasons I think it was ill judged, it invites
comparison with "Alfred Hitchcock's Masterpiece".
And though the director has explained it as homage, I tend to think it
should have been considered untouchable.
I didn't feel this about Scorsese reusing George Delerue's "Theme de
Camile" from Le Mepris over the closing titles in Casino.
(Another beautiful piece of music.)
But that it has been used isn't that big a deal, it's merely short-
term borrowing.
On 14 Feb 2012, at 21:17, David Kusumoto wrote:
* Those of you who disagree - who feel the insertion of Bernard
Herrmann's 5-minute "Love Theme from Vertigo" into 2011's "The
Artist" - is a mild-to-moderate sacrilege - are NOT wrong. Many
people feel the same way. I did not. I looked at the film as an
homage, akin to many films that have taken snippets of melodies or
scenes from other films as a nod to their classic status and/or to
parody them. When I saw the breakfast table scene from "Citizen
Kane" and then the Astaire-Rogers style tap-dance sequence - I knew
"The Artist" was a light-weight mash-up of the most familiar tropes
of "old Hollywood" movies.
* I still feel that the insertion of Herrmann's score is
controversial ONLY to older film buffs like us - because we're so
emotionally connected to all things Hitchcock and Herrmann. But I
also see everyone's point in this way: what director Hazanavicius
did - is akin to putting Max Steiner's opening theme to "Gone With
The Wind" into "The Artist" with a straight face. That melody is so
well known that it would indeed "rip me out of a picture." But I
don't think "Vertigo" is as familiar to contemporary audiences as
"Gone With The Wind."
* I remember when "Avatar" came out, I scoffed to a friend who has
kids - that James Cameron had just ripped off the plot of "Dances
With Wolves" and a few other films. She slammed me to the ground,
saying the movie's popularity underscores the irrelevance of snobby
opinions from old fogies like me. She said contemporary audiences
who made "Avatar" a hit - did not see nor get the reference points
to a 20-year-old picture like "Dances With Wolves" - and thus should
be allowed to enjoy them as being fresh, despite their obvious
lineage to films that came before. "The Artist" is not a great film
but it's good enough that I didn't find Herrmann's score offensive.
* Finally, three weeks ago, Bernard Herrmann's widow Norma gave a
short interview to BBC Radio about the controversy surrounding her
husband's music in "The Artist." If you go to the link below, do
not read the accompanying story, just listen to the interview.
Herrmann's window is royally pissed off. She says as rights holder
of that five-minute snippet from "Vertigo" - that she was never
contacted by the makers of "The Artist" to get her permission to use
it. She feels trampled upon and gives the impression that her late
husband's music was meant for specific films - and that they should
never be used elsewhere. Then a surprise occurs. The BBC
interviewer invites Norma Herrmann to a screening of "The Artist."
She reluctantly agrees to go. Whether or not you agree with Norma
Herrmann, her post-viewing reaction is revealing, though unlikely to
change your mind.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16681460
-d.
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:45:17 -0500
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Bernard Herrmann, "Vertigo" and "The Artist"
To: [email protected]
I finally saw The Artist last week. I knew about the Vertigo quote
and thought that Herrmann's music suited the scene to which it had
been applied, but I still find the use questionable. One of my
friends who saw the film before I did, told me that the Vertigo
quote pulled him completely out of the film. I can see his point -
the score to Vertigo is iconic if every a films score can be
referred to as such.
On the film itself, I did thoroughly enjoy it, but don't really see
it as best of the year. I thought Hugo was a terrific film, and of
the two "silent era" echoes currently at the multiplexes, much more
worthy of the praise that has been heaped on The Artist, enjoyable
as it is.
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:22:54 +0000
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: OT: Bernard Herrmann, "Vertigo" and "The Artist"
To: [email protected]
“But I thought it enhanced the picture “
Of course! I think it would enhance any picture it was applied to
and that’s why I really don’t care for it being inserted in to what
amounts as a massive gimmick, which “The Artist” is. In many ways
it’s like watching a vacuum cleaner shuttle along the glorious past
of Hollywood.
I’m not so sure that the majority of people who go to see “The
Artist” will not be able to reference the music to “Vertigo” even if
they have not seen Hitchcock’s seminal film there have been enough
clips on T.V which inadvertently lodge in people's memory banks,
after all it is a very infectious piece of music. The only thing
that seems reliable is, do people actually care? I think they should
when you have such marvellous piece of moving art it should be
protected: they might as well give Damien Hearst the key to the vault.
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:25:55 -0800
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: OT: Bernard Herrmann, "Vertigo" and "The Artist"
To: [email protected]
* From what I've read, director Michel Hazanavicius always intended
to use Herrmann's score from "Vertigo," presuming he could obtain
licensing rights for it. (He did.) But I don't want to paint a
rosy picture about this because indeed, there are people steaming
mad at the music's appearance in "The Artist." The angriest of them
all is none other than actress Kim Novak herself, who has spent the
last 30 years protecting what she considers her greatest legacy on
film; e.g., a film and a musical score that's all about her
character and James Stewart's longing for her.
http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/not-everyone-loves-the-artist-kim-novak-feels-violated-by-use-of-vertigo-score/
* Watching "The Artist" a second time, the whole thing still strikes
me as a charming black-and-white love letter to American cinema,
covering the end of the silent era - to the beginning of the Astaire-
Rogers' dance pairings during the early 1930s. If you can get past
the plotting devices that are oh-so-familiar - it's a treat. It's
been a long time since a novelty film with a predictable ending
that's unashamedly pulled straight out of old Hollywood clichés -
has become an awards favorite. The downside is "The Artist" has
been ignored by most audiences. The only people I know who've seen
it are crazy film buffs. With no big stars or high concept ideas or
spectacular action sequences, it's been as big a flop in the U.S. as
Spielberg's "The Adventures of Tintin" (another picture I thought
was dynamite). An Oscar for Best Picture in two weeks for "The
Artist" will confirm mainstream audiences' worst fears about an
industry that gets behind films that none of their neighbors have
heard of or cares about.
-d.
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:52:07 -0800
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: OT: Bernard Herrmann, "Vertigo" and "The Artist"
To: [email protected]
I haven't seen The Artist yet, but will take a bet that it was not
the director's original intention to use the Herrmann, but that he
fell in love with his temp track and then wouldn't replace it with
scored music. The most famous example of this, of course, is
Kubrick scrapping poor Alex North's perfectly serviceable score for
2001 in favour of the rather better known tunes he already had on
LP....
From: David Kusumoto <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, 14 February 2012, 4:09
Subject: [MOPO] OT: Bernard Herrmann, "Vertigo" and "The Artist"
Note: The links below have been tested and are safe.
* I went to see "The Artist" a second time to confirm my initial
positive feelings about it. If you've seen "Vertigo" (1958) - then
you already know its score by master composer Bernard Herrmann is a
classic. It's so effective at bringing out feelings of tragedy - or
inexplicable longing for something unattainable - that the musical
passage below was brought back for "The Artist" - and is heard in
the film in its entirety:
http://bit.ly/waRJoP
* Some film buffs found the Herrmann music inappropriate in "The
Artist." But I thought it enhanced the picture despite being
applied to a story that has an old-fashioned ending. And I bet most
audiences today cannot reference the music back to "Vertigo."
* And for those who can't get enough of Herrmann -- here's the
chilling theme that runs over the opening credits of
"Vertigo." (The theme below is NOT heard in "The Artist").
http://bit.ly/xovThM
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:18:33 -0800
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: OT: RECOMMENDED - "THE ARTIST"
To: [email protected]
* You're right, Freeman. "The Artist" has a gimmick - and that
gimmick is being the first commercially released silent film in the
modern era since Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie" (1976). Because of this
gimmick, the "story," such as it is, is constrained by what silent
pictures can bring to an audience without intelligent dialogue,
voice overs or symbolic imagery. Conversely, "The Tree of Life" is
cosmic art - and not surprisingly, very divisive to audiences in the
same way Kubrick's "2001" is - a film that geeks like us love - but
feel compelled to constantly defend. You were there for the "2001"
premiere and you told us that story of how it was received at one
VIP preview - vs. at another preview held the next day. "2001" did
not win Best Picture, but it is a classic.
* "The Tree of Life" is Terrence Malick's greatest film. But I get
blank looks from people when I talk about it. Quoting another
reviewer who loved "The Tree of Life" as much as I did (in the
context of disparaging the "end of the world" theme of Lars Von
Trier's "Melancholia") - "The Tree of Life says every moment of
existence is shot through with glory. Melancholia says life is
miserable, so who cares if the world ends?" Malick reaches for the
stars and some audiences get it and some don't. This doesn't mean
(nor am I suggesting), that those who don't are mentally challenged
fools.
* In the end, "The Artist" is indeed a croissant that makes no
pretense of trying to be an inward-directed, soul-searching treatise
for the serious mind, nor could it be capable of such - given the
format upon which it sits. I confess that although I loved "The
Tree of Life," enough to see it twice, (the second time on DVD with
subtitles, which decoded many mysteries I missed the first time
around) - when it comes to my time and my dollars, I still lean
toward films that don't feel like work. I appreciate pondering the
unponderable, but I like being surprised and walking out happy much
better because I'm a depressive nut by nature.
* It's like that scene in Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her
Sisters" (1986). Like Terrence Malick, Woody is obsessed with the
"what is the point of life?" question. His character tries out a
bunch of religions which only make him feel worse. But his
revelation that hand-wringing over "life's" questions is futile -
and that "living isn't all a drag" - comes not during a cosmic
moment, but when he walks in during a screening of "Duck Soup" with
the Marx Bros. He's laughing and enjoying himself over a film
that's a 1933 light-weight classic. "The Artist" is light-weight in
content, and I don't think it will be a classic. But it's an
ingenious and clever work for film buffs. It accomplished for me
what "Hugo" did not, and in far less time. I think what I'm saying
(in too many damned words) - is because "The Artist" is a derivative
mash-up of silent film clichés, and because "The Tree of Life" is
derivative of "2001" (with far fewer paying admissions) - we'll
probably be dead before the term "classic" can be bestowed on the
either credibly. I still run into people who go blank when I talk
about "The Shawshank Redemption." (BTW, I agree w/you about that
horrid film, "CRASH." That was the Academy's cowardly way of
"copping-out" for not picking the favored "Brokeback Mountain" as
the Best Picture of 2005, even though the film I liked most that
year was "Capote.") -d.
-----Original Message-----
Subject: Re: [MOPO] OT: RECOMMENDED - "THE ARTIST"
From: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:29:36 -0800
CC: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Freeman's review of THE ARTIST in a couple of sentences.
Remember your first plain croissant? Different in shape, color,
flakey, delicious while eating. But then when it was over it was
like, ehhh is that all there is? No meat, no other tastes but just
buttered dough, and you couldn't help thinking, couldn't the baker
have tried a little harder?
THE ARTIST = a croissant
If you want a full banquet, with astonishing sensations, thoughtful
preparation and a feast for the eyes, ears and head.
THE TREE OF LIFE
And when THE ARTIST does win Best Picture, which is likely, just
watch. In five years it will be relegated to that "WTF were they
thinking?" bone pile. Just like THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, ROCKY
and worst of all CRASH.
my two cents BUT always great to hear from David Kusomoto on this
here board.
(EDIT: The dog was GREAT though, far more appealing than the female
lead.)
-----Original Message-----
On Jan 26, 2012, at 6:40 PM, David Kusumoto wrote:
Based on a rave review received privately from a fellow MoPo member,
we rushed out to see "The Artist." Impressions (rather than an essay):
* Magnificent. A "cute" story told with dazzling flair in around 90
minutes..
* Lives up to and sometimes exceeds all of its critical hype.
* Best directed film of 2011. (Michel Hazanavicius).
* You would NOT know this was a French film unless you were told
FIRST.
* The two French leads, Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo (the
director's true life wife), deserve their nominations.
* Other actors are English or American, e.g., James Cromwell,
Penelope Ann Miller, John Goodman, Malcolm McDowell, Missi Pyle.
* Dazzling 21st century tools replicate old film clichés, e.g.,
multiple exposures, dissolves, twirling newspapers, etc.;
* Aspect ratio is the original square frame used during the silent
era.
* Silent film ironically has the best adapted score of the year,
heard in BOOMING monaural SOUND.
* Deceptively simple story is actually charmingly intricate; a
superb Oscar-nominated screenplay.
* The Jack Russell Terrier steals every scene.
* The film was shot entirely in Los Angeles.
* Some sequences are NOT ENTIRELY silent.
* "Put me over the top" (1 of 2): Bernard Herrmann's orchestral love
theme from Hitchcock's "Vertigo" heard in its ENTIRETY.
* "Put me over the top" (2 of 2): An Astaire-Rogers-style tap dance
scene with full rich sound.
* Superior pacing and emotion over "Hugo."
* Writer-director Hazanavicius is only 44.
* Superb ending.
* If it doesn't win Best Picture, I'll be very disappointed.
* Not sure if people under 30 will like it but I don't care. (They
won't get the "Vertigo" music either).
-d.
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