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I love what little there is on the official CD - if there was ever a score to tampt one bootwards... It's an MGM film, or is it tied up with Pangea (the label that released the existent CD)? Is that something to do with Sting? I saw the McQueen original a few weeks back and hated pretty much everything about it. It's dated horribly. And Legrand's score is a mess; there's one scene very early on with one guy in a hotel corridor and there's harsh jazz blaring out. Maybe it worked thirty-odd years ago but it's unbearable today. The Brosnan remake gets pretty much everything right.
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Thomas Crown Affair and Avenging Angelo need a legitimate, complete release. They're both terrific, and show a side of Conti's talents we don't often get to see. Rocky notwithstanding, Conti is sorely underrated. I'm very pleased that so much of his work has been released lately. I hope his reputation will be enhanced by it. Avenging Angelo and Rocky are Stallone films so I was just wondering how many Stallone films are Conti up to now? I think it must be 10 Stallone films he scored or am I wrong?
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Posted: |
Jul 12, 2007 - 2:35 PM
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By: |
Morlock1
(Member)
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What you're talking about is music as music. This is a film score talked about here. I have never seen the original or heard Legrand's score (aside from the song, of course). Whether or not the music has aged is another matter. But certainly film scoring sensibilites have changed. What was once the norm is now incedibly tacky and doesn't do what a film score is supposed to do. Films age. Film scores age. I was just last night watching THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE. Great movie, one of my favorites. Steiner's score now seems like quite a bad film score. It doesn't help the film. It is loud, melodramatic, often doesn't fit what's on screen. This touches on the larger question of viewing older films. Are supposed to adjust ourselves to the films, or is it right to expect a film/score to age? I personally believe that it is not really that important. Honesty comes through. Real, good, movie making will work no matter when, even if it might be impeded by the time it was made. And the same wit the score. If one can honestly believe that a composer cared about the film, and cared about how the score accompanied it, and really though about the music he was writing, than it should work no matter when. Hence, with some golden age scores, I love them in the film, they are perfect. With others they just sound and feel wrong.
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The original TCA is, as Onya puts it, all about style. But it's a 1968 style and it doesn't work nearly four decades on. Yes films do age, as does the music. But some age better. A few days ago I watched From Russia With Love again, and barring a few duff scoring moments (mainly the wildly inappropriate use of the James Bond Theme blaring over a scene of Bond looking over his hotel room) the film still works superbly. It's a product of its time (which is even earlier than Thomas Crown), but feels timeless. Crown doesn't. Crown looks and feels like 1968. A modern film that deliberately sets out to be cool usually fails by dating itself so precisely to "the now" that it's a historical relic just a few years later; just as topical and satirical humour works today but requires a lot of context and explanation to work afterwards. True cool, real cool, is effortless and timeless. You can go back to McQueen and, say, Bullitt, which wasn't made to be cool. Crown was. And it probably was cool at the time. The split-screen was a new and exciting device but 40 years on itjust looks silly; there doesn't appear to be any reason for it but "being cool". And the score probably worked at the time. But it doesn't work now.
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Posted: |
Jul 12, 2007 - 4:58 PM
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By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
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Crown looks and feels like 1968. You're right, but the "dated" quality of many films only serves to make them that much more enjoyable and compelling. For example, there is an entire subculture that attempts to recreate the style of late 60s/early 70 Playboy, as exemplified in films like "Thomas Crown," "Camille 2000," "Danger: Diabolik," etc. They attempt to do this through their clothing, music, furniture, art, decor, cocktails, and whatever else conjures this "reality." With postmodernism and culture continually being recycled, it becomes subjective and problematic to say what is and isn't "dated."
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