Chapter 3 The Director's Vision
Mark starts this long chapter with Jordan Peele's creepy debut film Get Out where composer Michael Abels also scored his first film. We hear lots about the relationship between the director and composer. As an example Mark talks about the composer Anne Dudley working with director Paul Verhoeven. Anne talks to Mark about how a director might have trouble with a piece of orchestration, whether too fast, not fast enough, too loud or too soft, or even the wrong instrument.
Mark mentions one theme from Manchester by the Sea. Director Kenneth Lonergan won the Oscar for best original screenplay, but according to Mark, let everyone down by ignoring Lesley Barber's score for the movie's most dramatic sequence and instead the oh so familiar Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor. Mark says "the result is disastrous". (Yes it's familiar but not worth the criticism.)
There is a lot about a technique some directors use called "temp tracks". They lay down some pre-existing music over a rough cut of the movie to get the composer started. Some of them hate this. We hear some examples. Then with big studio films, the composer might not just be inconverstion with the director, but also the producers, music supervisors and the editor without even the director being there. (These people tell the director separately what they think of the music).
More interestingly, we hear about partnerships between director and composer such as Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone (A Fistfull of Dollars etc), and Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer (Interstellar etc) Paul Thomas Anderson and Johnny Greenwood (There will be Blood etc), David Cronenberg and Howard Shore (Cosmopolis etc) and Yorgos Lanthimos and Jerskin Fendrix (Poor Things). I'm surprised I have seen all these. Mark says about the last of these "the most adventurously inventive scotre of 2023", and that the director had asked for ther score before the film was even shot and (miraculously, 95% ended up in the film. Mark ends this chapter with a favourite film of his called Out of Blue. (No, this is one film I have not seen, nor has hardly anyone else). Loosely based on the Martin Amis 1997 novel Night Train. Mark loves the score and the film that did rather badly at the box office.
Soundtrack Selection - Under the Skin (2013)
Maybe I'm one of the few people who went to see this film. Scarlett Johanson is an alien finding her way on Earth. Mark loves the soundtrack by British composer Mica Levi. You can hardly call it music, more just sounds. Not easy l;istening to it on it's own, but somehow matches the movie for it's strangeness. Mark thinks it "lends cohesion to a film that occasionally threatens to fall apart". I can agree with that. We hear about Levi's other scores for films like Zone of Interest.
Chapter 4 How did we get here?
Part 2 - From Goldsmith to Gudnadottir
Despite Mark's accolades for composer John Williams, he tells us he just prefers the music of Jerry Goldsmith. We hear a lot about his soundtracks. As we do for his "challenging" music. Next comes a part about composer Anne Dudley. (See my posts of 22nd April 2022 where there is a huge amount about her scores for so many films. And then on 24th June 2022 about her work with ABC, next on 15th August 2018 and January 2019 about the souindtrack for Mama Mia and 6th May 2022 for her work on Benedetta). Mark reminds us that Anne actually won an Oscar for scoring The Full Monty and only the second woman to do so. I did not know that. We hear about her career with the Art of Noise and working with many icons in the pop music industry. She scored so many films of which I was not aware.
Mark describes Hans Zimmer as "the current blockbuster composer of the day" with over 200 films in over 40m years and two Oscars. He also presents live shows. We hear all about all the big movies that he scored and his work with Christopher Nolan. The stories about Hannibal and Dune are amazing. I had not heard of the next composer Shirley Walker or why she "held the record for composing more original scores for major studio features than any other woman". She scored many super hero movies and three Final Destination films. Next is Rachel Portman whose score for Emma (1997) won the Oscar. Her work includes radio and TV s well as films like The Cider House Rules and Chocolat which was also Oscar nominated.
Mark says that Enrico Morricone being prolific is not the word with over 500 film and TV scores. I'm just not sure Mark's listin of so many does the book any favours. I wanted more about the person or some anecdotes. Like the fact that he didn't win an Oscar until 2016 for Taratino's The Hateful Eight. Lists again for A R Rahman, his Oscar and nominations. Icelamdic composer Johann Johansson gets a mention for Arrival and Hildur Guonadottir for Joker.
Soundtrack Selection - Drive My Car (2021)
Drive My Car is a wonderful film, and saved on my TV recordings. Ryusuke Hamaguchi's film was the first Japanese film to be nominated for a best picture Oscar. (Should have won). It did win best International Feature and nominations for best doirector and best adapted screenplay. Mark tells us this was his favourite score for that year composed by Eiko Ishibashi and is now a favourite album. But he calls it a strange film (I don't know why, its perfect). Mark describes the instruments the composer used that "feels like scenery" just as the director wanted. (Eiko's favourite film composer is John Barry, as he is mine. So why is he hardly mentioned in the book!) Where is his score for Out of Africa not mentioned. Just because it is too popular does not mean it's great and so much better than lots of movies that are mentioned. And Mark, it won the Oscar! Anyway, Mark completes this part with "it defies clinical assessment" and "the music is the movie". How can he be so wrong.
Chapter 5 The Long and Winding Road
From Compostion to Orchestration (and occasionally rejection)
This section starts with Elmer Bernstien who scored more than 150 films. Why must Mark just list so many. Better is stuff about composers and their own techniques for the process, Some might go into the studio with just the story, others with the full screenplay. All sorts of differnet ways. Isabel Waller-Bridge wants to see the picture with all it's visuals. Michel Jarr researched everything about Laurence of Arabia before starting on his score. We hear lost od anecdotes about ridiculous deadlines for the music. And even a composer's score being ditched completely for someone new. There are instances when a film and it's score have been fully completed, only for the studio to cancel it's distribution.
There is a great part about Abbey Road Studios. Who and what was recorded there. John Barrett, the studio engineer there, tells us about everything that goes into a recording session. From the musicians to instruments, orchestrators music editors and lots more. In the booth there might be producers and others connected to the film, all wanting their say. There is a huge amount here about the ways the soundtrack ncan be recorded, lots of anecdotes and technical stuff. Really amazing what goes on. All very interesting. Mark end this part with "watching an orchestra play note perfect a piece they are rfeading for the very first time always seems like an extraordinary magic trick". But that's what they do.
Soundtrack Selection - Brazil (1985)
Is "Terry Gilliam's dystopian masterpiece" going toom far? Mark goes to the "devasating ending" which includes Michael Kamen's Bachianos Brazil Samba. The composer remembers one time when he thought he was being ditched for another composer. But Gilliam stuck by him. The whole soundtrack is worked around that piece. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, this was the first their after it's major upgrade. For Mark, we have to "abandon reality and let our musical thoughts take flight". Well, I have not seen this film for a long time so I cannot comment. Maybe do some research.
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