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~ Eva Gabor ~ |
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~ Gisela Fritsch in 1950's .. ~ |
Irene loves films - and writes about them - Classics and Moderns - Hollywood and others, too. As long as it is connected with films - it might appear on this blog..
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~ Eva Gabor ~ |
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~ Gisela Fritsch in 1950's .. ~ |
So here is the winner of the last poll:
And a bit of information about singer Al Bowlly:
He was born in 1898 to Greek and Lebanese parents in Mozambique and grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. He did a few jobs before heading into music business as a singer. He eventually became one of the most popular singers in the 1930s in the UK. Sadly he died in 1941 due to an exploding parachute mine during the Blitz in London.
Well – there is another song I have to mention here because the incredible Mythical Monkey – What? You don’t know his blog A MYTHICAL MONKEY WRITES ABOUT THE MOVIES?? Visit it ASAP!!! – brought it up as his favourite in his comment to my AMĆLIE post.. (so many songs to present from that film – was hard to choose.. - I am sorry for just leaving your favourite out, Mr. Monkey, Sir!)
To make good .. a bit.. - here it is:
SI TU N’ĆTAIS PAS LĆ sung by French singer and actress FrĆ©hel:
Yours (well and) truly
Irene
The original title is LE FABULEUX DESTIN D’AMĆLIE POULAIN which can be very easily translated into “the fabulous destiny of AmĆ©lie Poulain”.
It’s an absolutely lovely film – and I think it was the first French film I ever watched in cinema. It is one of my favourite films and AmĆ©lie is one of my heroines – I can relate to her very much.
In the film she personated by Audrey Tautou, who you may know from THE DA VINCI CODE (2006).
Here you have the US trailer for AMĆLIE – so you can take a first glance at it (some of the really beautiful pieces of music of this film can be already heard in this clip):
Maybe you recognized the young man: It’s Mathieu Kassovitz who also was in THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) and in MUNICH (2005) and he will be in HAYWIRE (2011)…
Now let’s talk about the music:
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet originally wanted composer Michael Nyman to write the music for this film but changed his mind after listening to a CD by Yann Tiersen. So he bought the rights of Yann Tiersen’s melodies and used them for this film.
Yann Tiersen (who you can see in the picture above) also wrote one piece of music for this film which is used in different variations: LA VALSE D’AMĆLIE (= "the waltz of AmĆ©lie")
Not every song of this score was written by Yann Tiersen – here is GUILTY which was very popular in the 1930s - and it’s a wonderful song if you like to whistle… guess who does?!? ;”)
I can truly tell you – it’s a great soundtrack for long-distance trips by train (I checked that in several self-experiments..) – I can’t say anything about its “car-trip qualities” – yours Irene isn’t allowed to drive a car.. – mostly because she hasn’t got a driver’s license.. So you have to find that out by yourself.
I will add a poll again – you’ll have two weeks to decide which of those tracks I presented here is your favourite.
Yours (very well and) truly,
Irene
I highly react to film music. I can’t help it – and I won’t help it. :”)
But I will try and - if I can - establish a little series in which I will write about scores, composers – and ways more about my enthusiasm for these awesome pieces of music that we often hear but seldom realize. I might pick one composer or one movie or... - we'll see..
This is going to be quite personal – but you can avoid to read to much about "yours truly" because I will name every post LET’S FACE THE MUSIC – AND TALK - so you will know when to hide..
So let’s start with the music I grew up with:
Maybe you should know that I grew up with a father who is a great fan of western and adventure films and whatever. – Let there be some dirty “real men” who know how to use their fists and now and then spit out a sassy sound bite – my dad will love it.
Can’t imagine anything more lovable when thinking of my highly intelligent dad than this big man laughing about some silly jokes and a fat guy socking a bunch of meanies – yeah, my dad is great. We had some fights and not so very beautiful moments but I think we go along now. (Yes, I moved out years ago – how could you guess that? Well, it seems that I am starting to become nostalgic and forget things – don’t we all?)
Ennio Morricone.
I think his name is best know from several “Spaghetti Western” scores (though he wrote music for “only” 30 -40 of them).
2007 he received an Honorary Oscar for his life achievement – and he was nominated for several other awards of which he won a lot..
Hans Zimmer once called him his favorite composer in the world – and Hans Zimmer isn’t bad himself, is he?
Ennio Morricone worked also with Brian de Palma for THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987) and MISSION TO MARS (2000), with John Carpenter for THE THING (1982), with John Boorman for THE EXCORCIST II (1977) and with Wolfgang Petersen for IN THE LINE OF FIRE (1993) - to just name a few.
But for me - and presumably many others - he will always be the man who wrote music like these:
MY NAME IS NOBODY (1973) – one of my father's favorite films.. And - you know: there are Terence Hill’s famous blue eyes.. I am a fan of dark eyes.. - but this man.. well.. – let’s change the subject. This Nobody was pretty cool.. and this melody is one of the most cheerful I know:
THE BALLAD OF SACCO AND VANZETTI (1971) – which is quite political – read more about Sacco and Vanzetti and ask wiki.
The song was originally written for the Italian docudrama SACCO E VANZETTI (1971) but is also used for GERMANY IN AUTUMN (1978) and in Wes Anderson’s amazing THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (2004).
This was one of my favorite songs – and I still love it very much. It has a wonderful melody – very powerful. When I was a kid I used to hear it over and over at night and cry a bit.. Though I had no clue what this song was about. I always was an odd chick.. Maybe it was the organ..
But let's listen to Joan Baez:
For the fans: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968) – this one kills me. This is an unbelievable heavy piece of music – very dark and it is able to depress me. I guess that I couldn't possibly make a post about Morricone an leaving this one out..
( I think this is kind of a favorite scene for mothers: “See? Even Clint Eastwood is able to clean up!”)
Tell me: Do you like Ennio Morricone's music? Have you got a favorite melody by him?
Just for fun I am adding a poll so you can vote for your favorite melody of those I presented here – quite interactive, eh? ;”)
Thank you very much for visiting this blog – and I hope you liked what you saw.
Yours (very well and) truly
Irene