Film Scores

[MichaelB]

Pärt also wrote original film scores, with Pilot Pirx's Experiment (1979) being particularly striking, as it was composed after his tintinnabular style had first become internationally recognised. So it's distinctively his work, but he was enough of a professional to make sure that it fully fitted the sci-fi genre as well.

And to support what you've been saying, I'm afraid I found the final act of The Artist pretty much unwatchable because its recycling of Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo score didn't make sense to me on any level - artistically, historically, stylistically, you name it - and so it was a constantly jarring distraction at a time when the film and its score should have been at their most intimately and emotionally intertwined.

But on the subject of music becoming clichéd through overfamiliarity, I always felt rather sorry for Maurice Pialat, who made memorable use of a then pretty much totally unknown piece of Polish choral music in Police (1985) - which nearly a decade later became one of the unlikeliest chart hits of all time. (I suspect I don't even need to identify it; how many other Polish choral pieces would qualify?)

[colinr0380]

Hearing about that addition of a music cue from Vertigo to The Artist on the forum back in the day was actually the thing that made me entirely avoid the film, as that was either going to be too distracting or even worse too parodically obvious a choice (whether intentional or not) that I could only presume that it would make whatever action it was playing over inadvertently comical.

I am probably biased since I am using the film as my avatar, but I think the best use of Gorecki came in the Challenger section of The Atrocity Exhibition, but that's the exception that proves the rule where the music was afforded as much power as the imagery was being given and felt as if it was consciously chosen for its effect. But yes, the other issue that once that association becomes 'iconic' to the viewer (even if it does not become 'sacrosanct' in the culture at large), hearing it recycled again in a different context in another film can be extremely jarring. Which is why its a dangerous game to go for the obvious choice unless you are really certain it is the correct one to make.

[Michael Kerpan]

Pärt also wrote original film scores, with Pilot Pirx's Experiment (1979) being particularly striking...

Is this film available on subbed DVD/BRD?

[MichaelB]

My DVDs from a long-OOP box set of Polish sci-fi films, but there appears to be a copy on YouTube and with what look like bona fide English subtitles - only it's in dubbed Russian.

But given that it was an international co-production to begin with, I wouldn't be minded to be a linguistic purist, especially not if you're watching it for the music.

[J Wilson]

Pärt also wrote original film scores, with Pilot Pirx's Experiment (1979) being particularly striking...

Is this film available on subbed DVD/BRD?

I was curious about this myself, and a search indicates that a German blu-ray is coming out on May 19 that includes English subs, along with German, Polish, and Russian audio.

[MichaelB]

Ooh, that's very tempting indeed - thanks!

(I wouldn't even mind it not having English subs, as I have the technical wherewithal to rip them from the Polish DVD.)

Interesting to see the language options - the Polish DVD is Polish-only, but given that it's an international co-production I suspect the German and Russian audio is equally legitimate, and that there may not be a single version original. Dipping into that YouTube version, I was quite struck by how convincing the Russian lip-sync was, although I daresay it helps that Polish and Russian are both Slavic languages - and there are quite a few Russians in the cast, including Aleksandr Kaidanovsky of Stalker fame (in fact, he'd have made it not long before this).