Saturday, September 12, 2015

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Cinema '65: Hymns and Balalaikas!

A musical, three epics, and a drama.

Let's take some time to listen to some music, shall we?


Alex North for The Agony and the Ecstasy
***
It's lovely, the right mix of epic, intimate, and holy. It's your typical roadshow sound, really.

Maurice Jarre for Doctor Zhivago
*****
Now this is how you do an epic roadshow score! "Lara's Theme" sweeps you into the romance, revealing itself in unexpected moments -- like a moon shining in the sky, a beacon showing the way.





Alfred Newman for The Greatest Story Ever Told
****
One of the things I admire about this film is its refusal to be bombastic. Newman adapts his score accordingly -- it's subtle, it's moving, and it saves its big guns for resurrection and ascension -- in which case, it adapts Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus for full effect.

Jerry Goldsmith for A Patch of Blue
*****
What does bittersweet sound like? Probably like this -- simple and elegant, Goldsmith captures the gentleness of the story in his main theme, while creating genuinely upsetting moments like the blind crosswalk scene. Beautiful.

Jacques Demy/Michel Legrand for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
****
If Jarre's Zhivago score sweeps, Legrand's Umbrellas score swoons -- nothing could sound more vital than the love theme that carries Genevieve and Guy through the film, while the "Recit de Cassard" is full of a subtle longing, even if it is more straightforward. But still -- why does Demy get credit here, and not in the actual movie?

-----------------------

Maurice Jarre won the Oscar for Doctor Zhivago...but I'm gonna go with

MAURICE JARRE
for
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO

Yes, the same. It's incredible.

On the next adventure: Martin Balsam (A Thousand Clowns), Ian Bannen (The Flight of the Phoenix), Tom Courtenay (Doctor Zhivago), Michael Dunn (Ship of Fools), Frank Finlay (Othello) -- yup, it's Best Supporting Actor time, y'all!

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