Ludovic Bource's The Artist Score and Vertigo's Scene D'Amour: The Famous Scene

[artguy360 1,843]

I'm really interested in this one rather famous instance of a temp score track being used over the original music written for the scene. 

Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist came out in 2011. It's a black and white silent film and the film itself is an homage to so many things Hollywood. For the climax of the film the scene was temped with Bernard Herrmann's cue Scene D'Amour:

 

Working off of this temp score, the composer for the artist, Ludovic Bource wrote this music:

 

The music is good. I imagine it would have worked well with the film. It is also nearly a 1:1 replica of Herrmann's music, obviously not on accident. But the most interesting thing about this is that in the end the director opted to stick with the temp score! Can you imagine if George Lucas turned to John Williams during the scoring of the first Star Wars film and said "Johnny, I think we're gonna stick with Holst in this scene." I find this particular moment in film score history fascinating, particularly because the composer so clearly hewed close to the temp track. I imagine he was really trying to get the director to say yes and approve the cue, but it never happened. You can see the final seen here with the Vertigo music:

 

 

And to be honest, I don't think the Vertigo music even works that well with the scene. The sync points aren't very strong and the music resolves before the drama in the scene does. What do y'all think? Which cue works better for the scene?

[Mr. Hooper 1,780]

To me the scene buckles under the dramatic weight of Herrmann's music, and it teeters on the line between melodrama and comedy.

 

I read that Kim Novak felt it was disrespectful to use it. I think it's an example of self-indulgence on the part of the director.

 

Reminds me of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick had Alex North compose a score that tried to mirror the classical temp tracks—which he did an admirable job of, but it was a losing proposition...and North only found out at a screening that his score was rejected, and was understandably crushed.

 

But even if Kubrick was a dick about it, his instincts were correct.

 

North: "Stanley, I think you need a better composer..."

 

Kubrick: "I know, but they're all dead!"

[Holko 9,521]

25 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

North: "Stanley, I think you need a better composer..."

 

Kubrick: "I know, but they're all dead!"

More like

"Alex, I need a better composer than you"

"Well, they're all dead!"

"Huh, not a bad idea..."