Umbrage with Homage: Novak not silent over Artist's score use
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| Kim Novak as Madeleine in Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) |
Ms. Novak's full page ad on today's Hollywood trade magazines was a well placed, surprise left hook to popular and Oscar-expectant The Artist. Miramax's film is made "silent" in the style of the great films from the beginning of film history until 1930. While still principally released in major markets and art cinemas, the film has packed theaters and received glowing reviews.
Herrmann's score which is used during an important sequence in the current film has been a popular one to quote in films and commercials. Most younger audience members will probably recognize the iconic Herrmann/Hitchcock themes as the opening to the debut long music video Born this way from Lady Gaga.
Deadline Hollywood has covered today's Novak ad and response from the community. The statement from Kim Novak is provided below. I have not yet seen The Artist, but I certainly respect Novak's position and I'm also troubled when another film lift's another films score for use in ways that are not parody or homage. For example, while appreciate having the Herrmann music at the onset of Gaga video, there is no real thematic connection between her song and the film, nor does video reference the film in any significant way. Does it damage Vertigo/Herrmann/Hitchcock et al in any real way? No. I think for the most part, fair and legal use of scores from other films keep a film alive and relevant to new audiences. In defence of his decision to use the Love Theme from Vertigo in his film, The Artist writer-director-editor Michel Hazanavicius: “The Artist was made as a love letter to cinema, and grew out of my (and all of my cast and crew’s) admiration and respect for movies throughout history. It was inspired by the work of Hitchcock, Lang, Ford, Lubitsch, Murnau and Wilder. I love Bernard Herrmann and his music has been used in many different films and I’m very pleased to have it in mine. I respect Kim Novak greatly and I’m sorry to hear she disagrees.”
On the other hand, Novak makes some relevant points. Comments on this issue will be appreciated. After Novak's statement, I've posted a couple of scenes from The Artist and the scene from Vertigo and it's score which is now center of today's Hollywood vortex.
Kim Novak's statement
Los Angeles: “I want to report a rape,” said Kim Novak, the legendary star of “Vertigo,” “Picnic,” and many other revered classics. “My body of work has been violated by ‘The Artist.’ This film took the Love Theme music from “Vertigo” and used the emotions it engenders as its own. Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart can’t speak for themselves, but I can. It was our work that unconsciously or consciously evoked the memories and feelings to the audience that were used for the climax of ‘The Artist.’”
Novak went on to say that “The Artist” could and should have been able to stand on its own. “There was no reason for them to depend on Bernard Herrmann’s score from ‘Vertigo’ to provide more drama. ‘Vertigo’s’ music was written during the filming. Hitchcock wanted the theme woven musically in the puzzle pieces of the storyline. Even though they did given Bernard Herrmann a small credit at the end, I believe this kind of filmmaking trick to be cheating. Shame on them!”
This kind of “borrowing” could portend a dangerous future for all artists in film. “It is morally wrong of people in our industry to use and abuse famous pieces of work to gain attention and applause for other than what the original work was intended. It is essential that all artists safeguard our special bodies of work for posterity, with their individual identities intact and protected.
Herrmann's score which is used during an important sequence in the current film has been a popular one to quote in films and commercials. Most younger audience members will probably recognize the iconic Herrmann/Hitchcock themes as the opening to the debut long music video Born this way from Lady Gaga.
Deadline Hollywood has covered today's Novak ad and response from the community. The statement from Kim Novak is provided below. I have not yet seen The Artist, but I certainly respect Novak's position and I'm also troubled when another film lift's another films score for use in ways that are not parody or homage. For example, while appreciate having the Herrmann music at the onset of Gaga video, there is no real thematic connection between her song and the film, nor does video reference the film in any significant way. Does it damage Vertigo/Herrmann/Hitchcock et al in any real way? No. I think for the most part, fair and legal use of scores from other films keep a film alive and relevant to new audiences. In defence of his decision to use the Love Theme from Vertigo in his film, The Artist writer-director-editor Michel Hazanavicius: “The Artist was made as a love letter to cinema, and grew out of my (and all of my cast and crew’s) admiration and respect for movies throughout history. It was inspired by the work of Hitchcock, Lang, Ford, Lubitsch, Murnau and Wilder. I love Bernard Herrmann and his music has been used in many different films and I’m very pleased to have it in mine. I respect Kim Novak greatly and I’m sorry to hear she disagrees.”
On the other hand, Novak makes some relevant points. Comments on this issue will be appreciated. After Novak's statement, I've posted a couple of scenes from The Artist and the scene from Vertigo and it's score which is now center of today's Hollywood vortex.
Kim Novak's statement
Los Angeles: “I want to report a rape,” said Kim Novak, the legendary star of “Vertigo,” “Picnic,” and many other revered classics. “My body of work has been violated by ‘The Artist.’ This film took the Love Theme music from “Vertigo” and used the emotions it engenders as its own. Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart can’t speak for themselves, but I can. It was our work that unconsciously or consciously evoked the memories and feelings to the audience that were used for the climax of ‘The Artist.’”
Novak went on to say that “The Artist” could and should have been able to stand on its own. “There was no reason for them to depend on Bernard Herrmann’s score from ‘Vertigo’ to provide more drama. ‘Vertigo’s’ music was written during the filming. Hitchcock wanted the theme woven musically in the puzzle pieces of the storyline. Even though they did given Bernard Herrmann a small credit at the end, I believe this kind of filmmaking trick to be cheating. Shame on them!”
This kind of “borrowing” could portend a dangerous future for all artists in film. “It is morally wrong of people in our industry to use and abuse famous pieces of work to gain attention and applause for other than what the original work was intended. It is essential that all artists safeguard our special bodies of work for posterity, with their individual identities intact and protected.
I must say, I am inclined to agree with Kim Novak, for one reason: Homage and lifting are two separate things. For example, I find that both Alexander Payne and Jason Reitman pay proper homage to Billy Wilder through the tone and temper of their movies. They don't ape Wilder, but one can feel the spirit of Wilder throughout.
ReplyDeleteWhen someone takes a musical score, and implants it into their own movie, it can become a form of emotional expropriation: (You MUST react to my reaction of Herrmann's score positively.) It results in an attempt to conflate Herrmann's score with the scene in the movie "The Artist." I seriously doubt that the scene would have been as weighty, or fraught with meaning, without it. To smuggle an emotion into a film I think is haughty.
Over the weekend, I was watching the Woody Allen movie "The Purple Rose of Cairo." Now, Allen often uses old jazz records to create a mood, a setting, for his movies. Take the last scene, in which Mia Farrow has been put through the emotional wringer by two Jeff Daniels characters. She is sitting in the movie house, watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers dancing to "Cheek to Cheek." Is Allen using the sequence to claim the music for his own movie? No: He is using it to show how emotionally lonely and isolated Farrow's character is, and that despite the brilliance of the music and dancing on the screen, the promise of escapism just rings hollow for her. Allen took a lively musical number and transformed it into a tragic statement. But he didn't virtually "plagiarize."
I think Ms Novak is well out of line.
ReplyDeleteI have just seen the Artist this evening, and whilst its use of Scene d'Amour pales in comparison to the theme's importance in the film Vertigo, I thought it was a beautiful addition all the same, and felt that the director wasn't trying to exploit it in order to ride on its coattails.
It truly is such beautiful music.
Why is it that when we use other pre 20th century classical music, it is always viewed as an homage, yet, here it is seen as plagiarism...
Countless classical composers have their music re-used time and time again.
Personally I see Herrmann as one of the finest composers in the history of cinema, and find it befitting that his music be revisited.
Regardless of this though, I think the main thing here is that the director must have requested the use of the music, and somebody gave it the ok.
I can understand Ms Novak's sentimentality, and/or attachment to the music, but to act as if she herself had written, inspired or had anything to do with the creation of the piece, and seemingly claiming some sort of ownership or right to the music as if it were her own...well, I find that that is kind of insulting to Mr Herrmann.
And then.... her carefree throwing around of the idea that she had been 'raped'. Please.
What I see here are the bitter words of a has been. Maybe she can get some money out of it I guess.
Actually, I think if not for Hitchcock our memory of Ms Novak probably wouldn't have extended past 1960.