43 replies to this topic

[filmmusic]

I was writing over the Delerue thread, and I thought to open this thread here.
I haven't seen as many European Films as American, but I can distinguish some scores that are great.
You can pick scores written either by American or other ethnicity composer as long as it's for a European , non-English film.

Mine in no particular order:
-Cinema Paradiso (Ennio Morricone)
-Woman Next Door (George Delerue)
-Indochine (Patrick Doyle)
-La Reine Margot (Goran Bregovic)
-Camile Claudel (Gabriel Yared)
-Sissi Trilogy (Anton Profes)
-La Double Vie de Veronique (Zbigniew Preisner)
-Trois Coleurs: Blue (Zbigniew Preisner)
-Cyrano (Jean Claude Petit)
-L'Arche et les Deluges (Gabriel yared)

[Jason LeBlanc]

Abel Korzeniowski - Copernicus' Star

[MSM]

Nice picks, very much to my taste
I'd add anything by Woijiech Kilar from his Polish films, such as Smuga Czenia and Pan Tadeusz. Some Tan Dan (Crouching Tiger). Some Bollywood movies have nice music.

[filmmusic]

Thanks!
If you can change your quote, since I edited my post..

Crouching Tiger or Bollywood movies can't do, because we are asking for European films..

[Luke Skywalker]

Javier Navarrete's Pan's Labyrinth

[filmmusic]

Where are the other 9 Jason and Luke?
You will add them later?

[Jason LeBlanc]

I don't know any others

I've seen plenty of non-English European films (mostly French), but none of them had any scores that I have since listened to on its own.

Copernicus' Star, on the other hand, I've never seen the film lol.

[BloodBoal]

Hey, isn't Pan's Labyrinth a mexican film?

That thread made me realize I don't watch that many European films, and the ones I watch don't have amazing scores. So apart from Copernicus' Star (which I haven't seen), I don't know what to add. Got to think about it.

[filmmusic]

Pan's Labyrinth is a Spanish Film.

BloodBoal you mean you haven't seen ANY of the films I've put in my list for example?
oh, you're missing much I think. Of course everyone has his own taste, but some of those films are considered very good.

here's the End Credits of Cyrano. A magnificent music for a magnificent film. (in the second half you can hear the theme)

[BloodBoal]

Pan's Labyrinth is a Spanish Film.

Directed by a mexican dude, and produced by mexicans?

BloodBoal you mean you haven't seen ANY of the films I've put in my list for example?
oh, you're missing much I think. Of course everyone has his own taste, but some of those films are considered very good.

No I haven't. I'll try to watch them.

Cyrano de Bergerac's End Credits sound pretty damn good! I'll have to check that one.

[filmmusic]

Pan's Labyrinth is a Spanish Film.

Directed by a mexican dude, and produced by mexicans?

BloodBoal you mean you haven't seen ANY of the films I've put in my list for example?
oh, you're missing much I think. Of course everyone has his own taste, but some of those films are considered very good.

No I haven't. I'll try to watch them.

Cyrano de Bergerac's End Credits sound pretty damn good! I'll have to check that one.

Hmmmm... You're absolutely right! My mistake!
Pan's Labyrinth was nominated for best foreign film Oscar representing Mexico.

as for Cyrano: there is also a piece in the soundtrack which is a "copy" (I mean heavily influenced) of the Batman theme. it was very funny.. But can't find it in youtube..
Oh, here it is:
http://grooveshark.c...ergerac/5082666 (I believe this is legal, right?)
it's "The Gate of Nesle" (0.22'' -...)

Petit was sued by composer Danny Elfman for plagiarism. At the express request of director Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Petit quite freely adapted the main theme from Batman. Petit finally won the suit, proving meanwhile that Elfman's music contained some similarities to Petit's music too
source: http://www.musicweb-...e_bergerac.html


edit: Listening over and over to the Cyrano End Credits, I wish we had more such ecclectic scores as this nowadays.. *Sigh*

[MSM]

Thanks!
If you can change your quote, since I edited my post..

Crouching Tiger or Bollywood movies can't do, because we are asking for European films..

O yes my fault.

I will make use of this thread to promote some music of my favorite living film composer only second to John Williams, Woijiech Kilar, which he wrote for Polish movies:

[filmmusic]

Absolutely wonderful!! (listening to first piece)
I don't know, but as much i love Williams, Goldsmith and other American composers there is something in European Composers that American don't have. Maybe melodramatic sentimentality? I don't know..

[crocodile]

When I was a little kid, I had a soft spot for this tune. It's from a TV series.



Another cool one.



I'm not a fan of this score, but it has some cool underdeveloped themes.



Karol

[MSM]

Absolutely wonderful!! (listening to first piece)
I don't know, but as much i love Williams, Goldsmith and other American composers there is something in European Composers that American don't have. Maybe melodramatic sentimentality? I don't know..

I think European composers generally tend to write more in the European tradition, using often classic European forms (like the waltz or the polonaise) and orchestration. Of course in some cases it is obvious (Anton Profes was a Vienna based composer who's direct predecessors were Mahler, Strauss and Korngold) in more recent cases it is intended. Also Euroepan scores are less influecned by popular music than American music is, and film music has a different function in European films, more sketching the overall atmosphere of a scene instead of directly underscoring the on-sreen action and emotions.

[Stefancos]

Polonaise???

[MSM]

Polonaise???

Not the polonaise as it done at parties but the old polish dance music in 3/4 meter (listen to the 3rd video I posted above).

[Melange]

[Neimoidian]

Obviously, some Michal Lorenc's soundtracks must be mentioned here.

Prowokator - Ave Maria



Psy II - Wieczory



300 mil do Nieba - Droga

[filmmusic]

Still, noone had made a 10 scores list!
What does that mean?
you don't watch so many European films or you can't find 10 scores that you liked?

[crocodile]

Karol

[Pasi Tiitinen]

Some Scandinavian stuff:






By Tuomas Kantelinen

[Thor]

Absolutely wonderful!! (listening to first piece)
I don't know, but as much i love Williams, Goldsmith and other American composers there is something in European Composers that American don't have. Maybe melodramatic sentimentality? I don't know..

I would argue that American/Hollywood film music is the KING of melodramatic sentimentality.

I don't know if there is such a thing as a "European" sound. There are so many different countries, each with its own musical traditions. And the composers themselves are also as different in style as anywhere else, no matter which country they're from.

However, you may argue that there's a certain sense of pervading RESTRAINT running through many of them, as opposed to the American counterpart. Less "on-the-nose", maybe. Not necessarily for better or worse, just a possible difference. But then you have European composers making "Hollywood"-like film music too, so the comparison quickly falls apart.

[indy4]

I don't have nearly enough to make a top 10 list, but my favorites are Amelie and Les Choristes.

[Marian Schedenig]

Does The Legend of 1900 count? What about Heidi kehrt heim?

Les rivières pourpres has a great score by Coulais.

[publicist]

Only Morricone easily fills a TOP TEN, if you include Sarde, Delerue, Rota, Nicolai, Coulais, Yared etcetc, the number would grow by a wide margin.

[Ricard]

Absolutely wonderful!! (listening to first piece)
I don't know, but as much i love Williams, Goldsmith and other American composers there is something in European Composers that American don't have. Maybe melodramatic sentimentality? I don't know..

I would argue that American/Hollywood film music is the KING of melodramatic sentimentality.

I don't know if there is such a thing as a "European" sound. There are so many different countries, each with its own musical traditions. And the composers themselves are also as different in style as anywhere else, no matter which country they're from.

However, you may argue that there's a certain sense of pervading RESTRAINT running through many of them, as opposed to the American counterpart. Less "on-the-nose", maybe. Not necessarily for better or worse, just a possible difference. But then you have European composers making "Hollywood"-like film music too, so the comparison quickly falls apart.

E X A C T L Y

[Luke Skywalker]

Pan's Labyrinth is a Spanish Film.

Directed by a mexican dude, and produced by mexicans?

BloodBoal you mean you haven't seen ANY of the films I've put in my list for example?
oh, you're missing much I think. Of course everyone has his own taste, but some of those films are considered very good.

No I haven't. I'll try to watch them.

Cyrano de Bergerac's End Credits sound pretty damn good! I'll have to check that one.

Hmmmm... You're absolutely right! My mistake!
Pan's Labyrinth was nominated for best foreign film Oscar representing Mexico.

It is a Mexican/Spanish film. Co-produced by companies/people from both countries. most of the cast and crew are spanish, as are al locations and story setting.

In fact i think there was some controversy here because our academy did not push this film to be at the oscars for our country since they had other spaish favourite film that year. Epic fail.

[Romão]

One of the greatest scores ever written: Ivan The Terrible, by Prokofiev.

The scene starting at 2:41 is particularly striking:

http://www.youtube.c...9rDN9WEs#t=161s

[crocodile]

It is a fantastic score indeed! I've got a complete recording of it, with all the orthodox liturgical stuff as well and I'm loving it.

While we're at old scores. Georges Auric's Beauty and the Beast, Arthur Honneger's Les Miserables. and, of course, Godfrid Huppertz's Metropolis.

This year's La Ligne Droite (with the score by Patrick Doyle) is fantastic too.

There is simply too much to choose from.

Karol

[Richard]

Does The Legend of 1900 count? What about Heidi kehrt heim?

Les rivières pourpres has a great score by Coulais.

"Heidi" no, as it is in English. FFI on "Heidi" see my last post on the "what was the last film you saw?" thread.

BTW does Russia count as "Europe" now, because, if it does, then "Solaris" would definitely be in my top 3?

[Koray Savas]

Only Morricone easily fills a TOP TEN, if you include Sarde, Delerue, Rota, Nicolai, Coulais, Yared etcetc, the number would grow by a wide margin.

Thankfully someone with taste



'Nuff said.

[Nick Parker]

Practically everything Nino Rota ever did was absolutely amazing, with some of my sentimental favorites being Il Casanova (with its very 1970's trippiness) and La Strada.







I like also Astor Piazzolla's occasional forays into movie scores.

[Dole]

As Nick Parker mentioned, Nino Rota's work with Fellini including La Dolce Vita and Amarcord. Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky may be one of the best film scores ever written. I've never seen Lt. Kije (aka The Czar Wants to Sleep) but I've heard Prokofiev's concert suite and the music is used in the Alec Guinness film The Horse's Mouth and it's very nice. I remember liking Tiersen's music for Amelie when I first saw the film.

[Matt C]

I second that vote on Copernicus' Star. I also offer Debbie Wiseman's terrific score for Arsene Lupin -- love that score as well as Jane Antonia Cornish's score for the Danish fantasy film De Fortabte Sjaeles. Incredible theme, action music and end credits suite.

I do like Fernando Velasquez's scores for Shiver and El Mal Ajeno, but I wouldn't rank them in the Top 10.

[filmmusic]

there were some very nice suggestions here.
Any other?
possibly from romantic drama films that I'm searching?

[Romão]

One of my absolute all time favorites, Ran, by Toru Takemitsu

[Thor]

There are so many, I wouldn't know where to start.

Someone mentioned PELLE EROBREREN above. That's a gloriously beautiful theme, as is much of Stefan Nilsson's music.

From my own country, there are certainly some excellent things too. My favourite film theme of all time is from our most famous film (often hailed as the 'best Norwegian film of all time'), the puppet film FLÅKLYPA GRAND PRIX, written by Danish composer Bent Fabricius Bjerre:



This is another very famous theme for the film ORIONS BELTE:

[Marian Schedenig]

One of my absolute all time favorites, Ran, by Toru Takemitsu

Japan is not in Europe!

[scissorhands]

Actually, the film was funded by the French, so it's technically a European film.