NitrateVille.com

The Toronto International Film Festival ended yesterday with a special event screening of Hitchcock’s Vertigo. The event was held at Roy Thomson Hall and the film was accompanied by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. It doesn’t get any better than listening to an orchestra accompanying a classic film especially when the score is by Bernard Herrmann. The climactic scenes sounded like a revelation. Kim Novak was there to introduce the film and participate in the Q&A that followed. She was fun and enthusiastic. She said that she had no problem with Hitchcock and that she would have been warned by good friend Jimmy Stewart early on if there was any cause for concern. She also mentioned how happy she was to be on loan out to Paramount and escape Harry Cohn while working on the assignment.
I was happy to see a number of young people in attendance. This event at least gave them a sense of what it would have been like in the early days of cinema to see a film with a live orchestra. It really changes the dynamic of the experience.
I can’t quite figure out how Vertigo replaced Citizen Kane in the yearly critic’s poll after 50 years but that is a matter of taste.
One little problem though. Now I can’t get Herrmann’s score out of my head. One could have worse problems.

It must have been something to see VERTIGO on a big screen. I love that movie. And on top of that, Kim Novak in person! I wish she'd make at least one more film.

So are you saying that they were able to isolate the dialogue on the screen from the music on the screen? In other words get rid of the music from 1958 and just have dialogue, (with the music coming from the live orchestra)? I didn't know that VERTIGO had an isolated music track like that? Very interesting.

I do not know how the Vertigo music track was separated from the vocal track but the presentation was precise with no glitches along the way. None of the articles written about the event explained the process.

Here is an article about Kim Novak's visit from the Toronto Star:
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/mo ... novak.html" target="_blank

A couple of months ago the Minnesota Orchestra did the exact same thing to SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. How they got the original vocals separated from the orchestral tracks I don't know. It was letter-perfect. There was copious applause after each number, and a standing ovation at the end. Exhilarating experience.

At the time of original recording the vocalist would be in an isolated booth, listening to the orchestra with headphones.
The result would be a separate track for the orchestra, completely isolated from the singing.
In the case of background music, such as for VERTIGO, the music would be recorded after completion of the edited picture.
Assuming these separate originals still exist, making a vocal only track which could be used with a live orchestra is a pretty basic procedure.

Vertigo simply is a better movie than Citizen Kane..

We have had a few of these events in Oz. I could never see the sense in it myself. Why not use the orchestra to play to a silent picture? (I can though see the novelty value of it).