Novak, she ain't happy.

[Michael O'Regan]

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/01/09/k ... -responds/" target="_blank

[gentlemanfarmer]

Oh, my...I don't know Ms. Novak, and respect her body of work, but really, I think this is over the top. Am I missing something?

What about all the classical works that have been used in film, was Die Walküre raped in 1915 and again in 1979, was Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony serially raped during the silent era. I don't want to be flippant, but the hyperbole calls for more hyperbole; I mean, rape means a horrid crime, a real crime committed by real people with real victims. I don't think this ad was fair to the actual victims of rape, or to film lover's who were rewarded emotional by a carefully made musical quotation, or music lover's, or to people who do not know the film Vertigo, or Herrmann's score or the creators of The Artist. As to whether or not it was fair to Hitchcock and Co., and Herrmann, I don't know - it was surely licensed and paid for, and credit given in the film - what more is needed or wanted? Quoting another artist is the highest compliment, especially among musicians, and at a remove of over 50 years - it should be an act requiring thanks, but if I'm missing the BIG deal, I hope you'll all enlighten me.

Did Mozart rape the Marriage of Figaro when he quoted "Non più andrai" paradoxically and for humous effect in Don Giovanni? He also borrowed a tune from Martin y Soler's Una cosa rara and Giuseppi Sarti's Fra i due litiganti il terzo gode, and for 200 years those quotes were the only bits known to anyone outside of an archive of those two chap's music...not drawing the exact parellel, but quoting isn't all bad.

Art inspires art, and sometimes art quotes art - I hope I'm not being equally over the top, but this doesn't seem like a fair criticism to my dim little lights.

[buskeat]

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/01/09/k ... -responds/" target="_blank

I didn't like the use of Herrmann's music in "The Artist" if only because it completely took me out of the movie, so tere I was sitting thinking, "Say, that's the music from Vertigo!" instead of paying attention to the story. It was probably the worst moment in the film.

I did not, however, think, "This is a rape of Kim Novak." Quite an overreaction on the part of Ms. Novak, offensively so.

[gentlemanfarmer]

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/01/09/k ... -responds/" target="_blank

I didn't like the use of Herrmann's music in "The Artist" if only because it completely took me out of the movie, so tere I was sitting thinking, "Say, that's the music from Vertigo!" instead of paying attention to the story. It was probably the worst moment in the film.

I did not, however, think, "This is a rape of Kim Novak." Quite an overreaction on the part of Ms. Novak, offensively so.

Interesting, your one of many who have seen and written about the film and noted that, I have not had the chance since the nearest showing is a long, long way away...but I wonder about people who don't recognize it; but interesting you found it distracting. It seemed an odd choice when I first read about it, it would seem very anachronistic in a silent set in 1927-33 or so, at least to my way of thinking...anyways, I agree about the rape comment.

[LouieD]

She should shut her yap. Where was her complaining when Hollywood was deciding to make AWFUL remakes of films that were great to begin with? If the director/producer paid the royalty fees for the piece of music than it can be used anywhere, that's the way the business works, Kimmy.

Frankly, I don't really care who's score or song they use, if it fits the picture, it fits. BTW, "Vertigo" is a terrible picture.

[missdupont]

Here is the director's response. By the way, he was one of five Best Director nominees by the Directors Guild of America yesterday.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/a ... ius-279757" target="_blank

[Thad Komorowski]

The thing is, why would you use a piece of music from Vertigo in a tribute to silent film?

BTW, I'd like to report a rape, too - my wallet, of $25, for a copy of The Legend of Lylah Clare.

[Hillary H.]

I don't think the point was necessarily to pay tribute to Vertigo, but rather that for whatever reason, it was felt that music was better than any original piece might be (a wasted opportunity, IMO). However, using music from well-known silent movies would seem too obvious a choice.

I've also not yet seen The Artist, but really wouldn't mind lifting tracks here and there as long as I don't recognize them. The Vertigo piece would definitely take me out of the story, too.

[momsne]

On July 29, 2011, the American Cinematheque held an event saluting the movie career of Kim Novak. A few months later, Kim gets to see the real Hollywood in action. TV producer Hubbell Robinson, who produced the "Thriller" series among other productions, said a half century ago that in Hollywood the phrase that applies is: "What's New, Copycat." Kim is right to complain about the rip-off of Hermann's "Vertigo" film score. Trouble is, plagiarism is endemic in Hollywood, especially when it comes to "original" movie scripts. [Paging Amy Heckerling and David Franzoni.] Now if only the people who book talent on the Jay Leno show could get Ms. Novak to appear on the show to vent her anger at this movie score theft, that is something I would see.

[Gagman 66]

Sorry to say that I lost allot of respect for Miss Novak over this incident. It's not like she wrote the music. That being said, I would have preferred that they had went with something else.

[LouieD]

On July 29, 2011, the American Cinematheque held an event saluting the movie career of Kim Novak. A few months later, Kim gets to see the real Hollywood in action. TV producer Hubbell Robinson, who produced the "Thriller" series among other productions, said a half century ago that in Hollywood the phrase that applies is: "What's New, Copycat." Kim is right to complain about the rip-off of Hermann's "Vertigo" film score. Trouble is, plagiarism is endemic in Hollywood, especially when it comes to "original" movie scripts. [Paging Amy Heckerling and David Franzoni.] Now if only the people who book talent on the Jay Leno show could get Ms. Novak to appear on the show to vent her anger at this movie score theft, that is something I would see.

99.9% sure it wasn't a "rip off" or "theft". People who own the rights got paid. If I was to record the same bit of music on a CD called "Great Scores from Motion Pictures" would Ms. Novak be so pissed? Prolly not. Just some old actress flapping her gums.

[R Michael Pyle]

I'm sorry to see that Ms. Novak has overdosed on Prozac. If she'd only take two at a time it would settle those nasty tremors in the grey cell area. More than that - well, this is the result.

[Rodney]

If you've seen the other works of the director and star of The Artist (OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and OSS 117: Lost in Rio, both of which I highly recommend), you'll see a LOT of references to Hitchcock. The end of the second film even combines Vertigo references with North by Northwest, with Rio's giant statue of Christ standing in for Mount Rushmore.

My guess is that the director put various pieces of music together and told the composer "I'd like something here that sounds like this," including of course Sing Sing Sing for the finale. The composer then wrote music to match (while Sing Sing Sing is used in the trailer, the music for the dance in the movie is a new, similar piece at the same tempo). But he may have said "If you want this thing from Vertigo, let's just use this thing from Vertigo." I don't have any special info on this, but it makes sense to me.

And what's more authentic in a silent film score than re-using pieces that worked well for an earlier film? In James Bradford's cue sheet to Beggars of Life he includes a piece he wrote for Beau Geste.

[Harlett O'Dowd]

ymmv, but it was the quote of "Temptation" that took me out of the film. By the time we got to Vertigo, I had spotted ... andheard ... so many homages I took it as part of teh film and didn't much care

[precode]

I've been raped! I just watched FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN and immediately recognized the cue "Storming The Castle" from GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN! How DARE they?

Mike S.
(sheesh)

[Richard Finegan]

...I just watched FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN and immediately recognized the cue "Storming The Castle" from GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN! How DARE they?

Mike S.

And it seems to me that I've heard "Strange Faces" in two or three Universal movies...make that two or three HUNDRED!