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Kritzerland is proud to present a new world premiere limited edition soundtrack:
PIRATES
Music Composed by Philippe Sarde
“You son of a double-eyed whore from the reeking gutters of Rotterdam!”
Roman Polanski had long wanted to make a pirate film; a grand, lush, fun pirate film like those he’d seen as a child. He and collaborator Gerard Brach (with whom Polanski had collaborated on Repulsion, Cul-de-Sac, The Fearless Vampire Killers, What?, The Tenant, Tess, and others that would come later), wrote the script after Polanski had finished with Chinatown. Originally slated to star Jack Nicholson and Polanski himself, the film would not be made until a decade later, this time with Walter Matthau in the lead.
Pirates premiered at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, after which it opened in the United States to critical disdain and box-office apathy. Grossing only two million dollars, the film was simply not what audiences of the day wanted and it disappeared quickly. Even so, it did manage to pick up one Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design (Anthony Powell). It vanished for a while, but, thanks to home video and cable showings, over the years people have come to appreciate its many pleasures, including Matthau’s terrific performance, the sometimes-mordant black humor, wonderful action scenes, gorgeous visuals (photography by Witold Sobocinski), and Polanski’s excellent and robust direction. And, above all, the wonderful, colorful, lush, exciting, and altogether beautiful score of Philippe Sarde.
Polanski had begun what would be a fruitful collaboration with Sarde on The Tenant, which was followed by Sarde’s incandescent score for Tess (for which Sarde was nominated for an Academy Award) and then Pirates. Born in 1945, Philippe Sarde began scoring films in 1970, and from then on became one of France’s busiest and best composers. Right from the get-go the Sarde sound was instantly recognizable – his wonderful gift for memorable and melodic themes, his ability to do just about any genre, but in his own unique style. His film scores throughout the 1970s were some of that decades’ best. Soon thereafter, Hollywood discovered him, and he did many terrific scores for US films, such as Ghost Story, The Manhattan Project, Lovesick, Lord of the Flies, Music Box, along with an impressive list of French films and films from other countries
About the scoring of the film, Polanski said, “I did not intend to make a spoof and therefore I did not ask Philippe to spoof the music, though we both wanted to make references to the period and the atmosphere of the old Hollywood action flicks. I wanted a music that would underline certain actions and gags, and yet I didn’t want a “Mickey Mouse” type of score. I wanted to avoid a caricature.” Sarde delivered exactly what Polanski wanted and an absolutely brilliant score.
Pirates was originally released on LP and then on CD by Varese Sarabande, and that CD is long out of print and has become a pricey collector's item. That release was oddly sequenced, as a quick perusal of the cue titles will tell you. We were going to leave it that way until we actually arranged the cue titles so that they followed the film’s story, and once we heard that we knew that we wanted to present it as Sarde wrote it. And interestingly, we later found out that’s exactly how the original LP presented the score – the CD mixed it all up, but if you look at the LP cue order you’ll see it’s all in film order, sans the music that was added for the CD.
The sound has been completely remastered, and additionally we’ve included two bonus cues: the main and end titles as presented in the film, taken from the beautiful-sounding foreign blu-ray release.
Matey, they don’t seem to write scores like Pirates anymore, so it’s a real treat to have Philippe Sarde’s great swashbuckling music back on CD, sounding better than ever with enough buckle and swash for a dozen films.
This release is limited to 1000 copies only. The price of the CD is $19.98, plus shipping. Additionally, we are offering a special deal with the purchase of this release. Go to the item page and click on the link to find out about it.
CD will ship the second week of May – however, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.
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So the end titles bonus isn't listed as a bonus in the track list?
Sounds interesting though. I think I may have caught part of this movie some time or another...
The original plan was to have both bonus tracks at the end - however, after hearing the quality of the two extra tracks, I decided to put the end titles in the sequence, since the track that used to end the LP didn't have a real solid ending ending (nor did the track Varese used to end the CD). So, it was a great way to wrap it up.
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This score is of a genre that it might surprise you to hear is one of my favorites. The Varèse disc was a bit expensive, so I never caught up with it. I am quite glad to be able to finally get this score at a decent price and with a Kritzerland remastering! Thanks again, Bruce!
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Hello to all you true believers! I'm a longtime member though (extremely) infrequent poster. I do, however, regularly follow various discussions and announcements with amusement and delight (and occasionally head-shaking bewilderment).
But I wanted to jump in with my own shout out to Bruce. I've admired your label since it's inception. Your choices for release, though not always my interest, are always intriguing, surprising, and often wonderful. I have been thrilled with: Tin Star, That Man From Rio, Taras Bulba, Rhapsody in Steel, Gorky Park, Love With a Proper Stranger, and others (but especially One-Eyed Jacks and particularly the obscure Dead Of Winter, a wonderful film and score I've enjoyed since I saw the movie upon its release and never thought I'd see on CD).
Which now brings me to Pirates. I've been an ardent admirer of Phillipe Sarde's work since I first saw Ghost Story. I love his gift for melody (along with his countryman Delerue) and his gorgeous orchestrations. When I awoke this morning and logged onto this site, I was greatly thrilled to see a remastered Pirates on offer. I've owned the Varese for years, but it was so old it was understandably lacking in the sonics and packaging department. Thank you for another fine choice for release. Please keep it up.
p.s. I've taken you up on the special offer: the other CD is a perfect pairing and wonderful listen in it's own right. Cheers.
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Ordered! More Sarde is always welcome.
Bruce,
What's the story behind the film mix of the Main Title...whats the difference?
Was the End Title an edit or is it an actual composition that was not on the master tapes?
Many thanks -
Michael
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Hello to all you true believers! I'm a longtime member though (extremely) infrequent poster. I do, however, regularly follow various discussions and announcements with amusement and delight (and occasionally head-shaking bewilderment).
But I wanted to jump in with my own shout out to Bruce. I've admired your label since it's inception. Your choices for release, though not always my interest, are always intriguing, surprising, and often wonderful. I have been thrilled with: Tin Star, That Man From Rio, Taras Bulba, Rhapsody in Steel, Gorky Park, Love With a Proper Stranger, and others (but especially One-Eyed Jacks and particularly the obscure Dead Of Winter, a wonderful film and score I've enjoyed since I saw the movie upon its release and never thought I'd see on CD).
Which now brings me to Pirates. I've been an ardent admirer of Phillipe Sarde's work since I first saw Ghost Story. I love his gift for melody (along with his countryman Delerue) and his gorgeous orchestrations. When I awoke this morning and logged onto this site, I was greatly thrilled to see a remastered Pirates on offer. I've owned the Varese for years, but it was so old it was understandably lacking in the sonics and packaging department. Thank you for another fine choice for release. Please keep it up.
p.s. I've taken you up on the special offer: the other CD is a perfect pairing and wonderful listen in it's own right. Cheers.
Many thanks!
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This one is so ordered! what a kick-ass release - Thank you Kritzerland!
it's going to be a fast sell-out!
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