The second documentary of this series is dedicated to Maurice Jarre.
For half a century, Maurice Jarre was one of the most innovative composers, whose powerful and unusual writing shattered conventions, constantly tearing apart the walls of conservatism. He regarded his art as an open window to the world.
From 1951, he learnt technically how to `compose’ for films through working on shorts. In 1958, he composed the music for his first feature, Head Against the Wall, directed by Georges Franju, who soon became his mentor - an affectionate father figure-head of cinema. ‘Franju was open to all forms of experimentation’, Jarre liked to stress. ‘For example, there is in Head Against the Wall a theme written for a banjo out of tune and a dismantled piano, in which I put in old clock chimes. We produced really weird vibrations, an unusual contribution to the film. Any traditional director would have have told me, ''My dear Maurice, you're completely mad!'' Franju, however, was enthusiastic - the more extravagant my music was, the more delighted he was.’
The impact of Head against the Walls and Eyes Without a Face triggered new collaborations with Henri Verneuil, Frederic Rossif and the turbulent Jean-Pierre Mocky. For Maurice Jarre, this formative period is one of the most unique in his burgeoning career. Financial constraints stimulated his inspiration and guided him to lofty heights to odd orchestral combinations from which emerged the sound of some of his favourite instruments: the banjo, harpsichord, mecanical piano or ondes Martenot. There is a Jarre ‘sound’, typical of this period, linked to the rhythms of broken, flawed obssesive waltzes, which is close to uneasiness. In the space of a handful of films, including several black jewels directed by Franju, Maurice Jarre asserted himself as a composer of poetry and of what is outwordly and strange.
Then in 1962, Lawrence of Arabia established Jarre’s signature on a global scale, winning him the first of his three Oscars. This was followed in 1964 by a self-imposed exile in California. In Los Angeles, he wrote for `author’ directors: Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, John Huston, Clint Eastwood, Michael Cimino... Happily, Hollywood never intefered in Jarre’s writing, his sinuous melodies, his orchestral darings, his unconventional harmonic universe. ‘It’s true’, he conceded with a smile, ‘Musicians often tell me: ''Harmonically, you're a pervert!'' I have to agree they’re right.’
The composer of The Man Who Would Be King never waived his insatiable curiosity for ethnic music and instruments. In this context, it is hardly surprising that his filmography sounds like a clariion call to adventure, to distant lands and to discover other cultures. In his own way, Maurice Jarre was as much a composer of the intimate as he was of the epic. Always willing to experiment, he never abandoned the orchestral ‘meccanos’ that made his mark. ‘It is true’, he acknowledged that, ‘I like to increase the number of instruments usually used as soloists. Listen for example to the twelve pianos in Is Paris Burning? that evoke Nazi boots pounding ; the eight harps in Ryan's Daughter intended to create the timbre of a huge Celtic harp ; the ten percussions in Mad Max III or in The Tin Drum ; the two pianos in unison in The Damned, one tuned and one out of tune…In Terence Young’s Red Sun, for example, there was a mosaic of cultures to unite through music - the Wild West with Charles Bronson, Japan with Toshiro Mifune, France with Alain Delon ... I drew on their characters to form, in the manner of Bartok, an imaginary folklore made of ondes Martenot, accordion, koto, cimbalom, all mixed in with the orchestra.’
In the eighties, at a time when the traditional cinema-show was collapasing, Peter Weir, an Australian filmmaker of the new generation, reactivated it, causing it to widen and deepen its relationship with electronic tools. At the same time, Jarre began to have numerous prestigious concerts across the globe, and was the head of training for ninety musicians. He became the orchestra conductor that he had dreamed of being at the age sixteen. Finally, behind the creator was a man of great rectitude, warm and simple, unfussy and easy to talk to, speaking of himself only when invited by others to do so.
Maurice Jarre did not take himself to be Maurice Jarre... he regarded himself as a musician with a late vocation, whose journey was marked by luck and fruitful meetings. The lyricism and the strength of his inspiration make it difficult to catch a glimpse of the humourous and ironic aspects of his personality. Like a modern disciple of Sacha Guitry or George Bernard Shaw, Maurice was a man of spirit, with a dazzling ability for repartee, practicing mockery in high dosages, observing the world as if it was a small theatre. He loved as much to move and transport you through his music, as to make you laugh with the use of a good word, often spicy but never nasty.
Women and food also counted in the life of a man bulimic for the pleasures of life. Adding to this, was a man of heart. For each concert, Maurice was accustomed to waiving his fee for the benefit of a charity, most often related to music education. A symbol : in the spring of 2006 the man of world fame returned to the country of his birth to lead the National Orchestra of Lyon, his home town. Poignantly, it was the first concert in his hometown and the last concert of his life. A remarkable way to close the circle.
It is precisely during this last scenic visit that Maurice Jarre engaged in one of his final projects: a large-scale portrait of his life, filmed by Pascale Cuenot. For several months, the documentary filmmaker followed him from Lyon to Paris, from Switzerland to California. By bringing together great witnesses who have marked Jarre’s course (Jean Rochefort, Peter Weir and Volker Schlondorff, Adrian Lyne), she managed to restore with feeling his past to the present. In retrospect, there is a particular emotion, almost crepuscular, when seeing the great Maurice speak to Pascale Cuenot’s camera. Beyond the musician, it is a wise man who is transmiting a lesson of life. A wise man who liked to watch the clouds pass over the peaks of the Swiss mountains, listen to the sound of the wind in the poplars. His blue eyes, his physical and moral elegance, his smile, his sense of the paradoxal will be missed forever. Maurice Jarre was not simply a composer: he was a great humanist.
“In The Tracks of - Maurice Jarre” - 52’ 60 years of successful career, 200 film scores, 70 years of theater … From the most beautiful hours of TNP to the Academy Awards of Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, Maurice Jarre is a film legend. He lived between Switzerland and Los Angeles where he invited the audience to a private interview in the heart of his creative universe. In front of his piano, facing a magnificent landscape which surrounds him, he tells the audience about his life made of music, uplifting them into the deepest of his memories.
INTERVIEWS: Adrian Lyne, George Miller, Jean Rochefort, Omar Sharif, Peter Weir, Volker Schlondorff, Jacques Dorfmann, Sandra Lean, Jean-Pierre Mocky.
CONTENTS / Maurice JARRE Format : NTSC Language : French / English
? Bonus : 130 min - Conversations with participants (93 mn) : Adrian Lyne - Director / USA David Lean - Director / UK George Miller - Director / Australia Jacques Dorfmann - Director / France Jean-Pierre Mocky - Director / France Jean Rochefort - Actor / France Jonathan Allen - Production sound mixer / Abbey Road / UK Stephane Lerouge - Specialist film music / France Omar Sharif - Actor / France Peter Weir - Director / Australia Volker Schlondorff - Director/ Germany
インターナショナルに活躍するフィルム・コンポーザーを追ったドキュメンタリーDVDシリーズ。第２弾はモーリス・ジャール。76分のドキュメンタリーに、作曲家本人、及び映画関係者のコメントを約126分収録。
トラックリストThe second documentary of this series is dedicated to Maurice Jarre.
For half a century, Maurice Jarre was one of the most innovative composers, whose powerful and unusual writing shattered conventions, constantly tearing apart the walls of conservatism. He regarded his art as an open window to the world.
From 1951, he learnt technically how to `compose’ for films through working on shorts. In 1958, he composed the music for his first feature, Head Against the Wall, directed by Georges Franju, who soon became his mentor - an affectionate father figure-head of cinema.
‘Franju was open to all forms of experimentation’, Jarre liked to stress. ‘For example, there is in Head Against the Wall a theme written for a banjo out of tune and a dismantled piano, in which I put in old clock chimes. We produced really weird vibrations, an unusual contribution to the film. Any traditional director would have have told me, ''My dear Maurice, you're completely mad!'' Franju, however, was enthusiastic - the more extravagant my music was, the more delighted he was.’
The impact of Head against the Walls and Eyes Without a Face triggered new collaborations with Henri Verneuil, Frederic Rossif and the turbulent Jean-Pierre Mocky. For Maurice Jarre, this formative period is one of the most unique in his burgeoning career. Financial constraints stimulated his inspiration and guided him to lofty heights to odd orchestral combinations from which emerged the sound of some of his favourite instruments: the banjo, harpsichord, mecanical piano or ondes Martenot.
There is a Jarre ‘sound’, typical of this period, linked to the rhythms of broken, flawed obssesive waltzes, which is close to uneasiness. In the space of a handful of films, including several black jewels directed by Franju, Maurice Jarre asserted himself as a composer of poetry and of what is outwordly and strange.
Then in 1962, Lawrence of Arabia established Jarre’s signature on a global scale, winning him the first of his three Oscars. This was followed in 1964 by a self-imposed exile in California. In Los Angeles, he wrote for `author’ directors: Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, John Huston, Clint Eastwood, Michael Cimino... Happily, Hollywood never intefered in Jarre’s writing, his sinuous melodies, his orchestral darings, his unconventional harmonic universe. ‘It’s true’, he conceded with a smile, ‘Musicians often tell me: ''Harmonically, you're a pervert!'' I have to agree they’re right.’
The composer of The Man Who Would Be King never waived his insatiable curiosity for ethnic music and instruments. In this context, it is hardly surprising that his filmography sounds like a clariion call to adventure, to distant lands and to discover other cultures. In his own way, Maurice Jarre was as much a composer of the intimate as he was of the epic. Always willing to experiment, he never abandoned the orchestral ‘meccanos’ that made his mark. ‘It is true’, he acknowledged that, ‘I like to increase the number of instruments usually used as soloists. Listen for example to the twelve pianos in Is Paris Burning? that evoke Nazi boots pounding ; the eight harps in Ryan's Daughter intended to create the timbre of a huge Celtic harp ; the ten percussions in Mad Max III or in The Tin Drum ; the two pianos in unison in The Damned, one tuned and one out of tune…In
Terence Young’s Red Sun, for example, there was a mosaic of cultures to unite through music - the Wild West with Charles Bronson, Japan with Toshiro Mifune, France with Alain Delon ... I drew on their characters to form, in the manner of Bartok, an imaginary folklore made of ondes Martenot, accordion, koto, cimbalom, all mixed in with the orchestra.’
In the eighties, at a time when the traditional cinema-show was collapasing, Peter Weir, an Australian filmmaker of the new generation, reactivated it, causing it to widen and deepen its relationship with electronic tools. At the same time, Jarre began to have numerous prestigious concerts across the globe, and was the head of training for ninety musicians. He became the orchestra conductor that he had dreamed of being at the age sixteen. Finally, behind the creator was a man of great rectitude, warm and simple, unfussy and easy to talk to, speaking of himself only when invited by others to do so.
Maurice Jarre did not take himself to be Maurice Jarre... he regarded himself as a musician with a late vocation, whose journey was marked by luck and fruitful meetings. The lyricism and the strength of his inspiration make it difficult to catch a glimpse of the humourous and ironic aspects of his personality. Like a modern disciple of Sacha Guitry or George Bernard Shaw, Maurice was a man of spirit, with a dazzling ability for repartee, practicing mockery in high dosages, observing the world as if it was a small theatre. He loved as much to move and transport you through his music, as to make you laugh with the use of a good word, often spicy but never nasty.
Women and food also counted in the life of a man bulimic for the pleasures of life. Adding to this, was a man of heart. For each concert, Maurice was accustomed to waiving his fee for the benefit of a charity, most often related to music education. A symbol : in the spring of 2006 the man of world fame returned to the country of his birth to lead the National Orchestra of Lyon, his home town. Poignantly, it was the first concert in his hometown and the last concert of his life. A remarkable way to close the circle.
It is precisely during this last scenic visit that Maurice Jarre engaged in one of his final projects: a large-scale portrait of his life, filmed by Pascale Cuenot. For several months, the documentary filmmaker followed him from Lyon to Paris, from Switzerland to California. By bringing together great witnesses who have marked Jarre’s course (Jean Rochefort, Peter Weir and Volker Schlondorff, Adrian Lyne), she managed to restore with feeling his past to the present. In retrospect, there is a particular emotion, almost crepuscular, when seeing the great Maurice speak to Pascale Cuenot’s camera. Beyond the musician, it is a wise man who is transmiting a lesson of life. A wise man who liked to watch the clouds pass over the peaks of the Swiss mountains, listen to the sound of the wind in the poplars. His blue eyes, his physical and moral elegance, his smile, his sense of the paradoxal will be missed forever. Maurice Jarre was not simply a composer: he was a great humanist.
“In The Tracks of - Maurice Jarre” - 52’
60 years of successful career, 200 film scores, 70 years of theater … From the most beautiful hours of TNP to the Academy Awards of Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, Maurice Jarre is a film legend.
He lived between Switzerland and Los Angeles where he invited the audience to a private interview in the heart of his creative universe. In front of his piano, facing a magnificent landscape which surrounds him, he tells the audience about his life made of music, uplifting them into the deepest of his memories.
INTERVIEWS: Adrian Lyne, George Miller, Jean Rochefort, Omar Sharif, Peter Weir, Volker Schlondorff, Jacques Dorfmann, Sandra Lean, Jean-Pierre Mocky.
CONTENTS / Maurice JARRE
Format : NTSC
Language : French / English
? Documentary : 76 min
? Booklet (16 pages, texts + photos - French / English)
? Bonus : 130 min
- Conversations with participants (93 mn) :
Adrian Lyne - Director / USA
David Lean - Director / UK
George Miller - Director / Australia
Jacques Dorfmann - Director / France
Jean-Pierre Mocky - Director / France
Jean Rochefort - Actor / France
Jonathan Allen - Production sound mixer / Abbey Road / UK
Stephane Lerouge - Specialist film music / France
Omar Sharif - Actor / France
Peter Weir - Director / Australia
Volker Schlondorff - Director/ Germany
- Conversations with Maurice Jarre (33 mn)
収録言語：英語・フランス語
フォーマット：DVD (NTSC)
リージョン：フリー