Alan Rickman Thought Williams’ Potter Score Was “Hideous”

[Disco Stu 15468]

The Guardian published an excerpt from the late Alan Rickman’s diary.  Here’s a bit that jumped out at me!

 

Quote

4 November [2001]
HARRY POTTER PREMIERE.
6.30pm The film should only be seen on a big screen. It acquires a scale and depth that matches the hideous score by John Williams. Party afterwards at the Savoy is much more fun.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/sep/24/alan-rickmans-secret-showbiz-diaries-harry-potter

[Tallguy 1517]

Good heavens! What did he think of Galaxy Quest? 

[Sandor 657]

I think he was generally unhappy the production of Harry Potter was so ‘Hollywoodized’ and John Williams -in his eyes the most famous and noteworthy person working on the film- being the example to get his point across.

 

It’s actually a compliment when you think about it. 😉

[Fabulin 3433]

I would read it as a general, philosophical hostility, and a sardonic admission that the film and the score do work on the big screen as intended.

[bollemanneke 2870]

Five points from Slytherin, Rickman.

[Score 703]

Maybe he was disappointed that there was no Snape's theme...

[Datameister 1650]

56 minutes ago, Fabulin said:

I would read it as a general, philosophical hostility, and a sardonic admission that the film and the score do work on the big screen as intended.

 

My reading as well.

[Tom 3387]

3 hours ago, Tallguy said:

Good heavens! What did he think of Galaxy Quest? 

Same thing he thought with HP--$$$.

[Not Mr. Big 4048]

British people just don't appreciate John Williams 

[Marian Schedenig 6220]

2 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

British people just don't appreciate John Williams 

 

They just gave him their best orchestra and a knighthood. 

[Not Mr. Big 4048]

Just now, Marian Schedenig said:

 

They just gave him their best orchestra and a knighthood. 

Not enough 

[mstrox 5680]

How was he to know that there would be a good Harry Potter score if he just waited a couple movies?

[Not Mr. Big 4048]

8 minutes ago, mstrox said:

How was he to know that there would be a good Harry Potter score if he just waited a couple movies?

Half Blood Prince?

[KK 3251]

5 hours ago, Sandor said:

I think he was generally unhappy the production of Harry Potter was so ‘Hollywoodized’ and John Williams -in his eyes the most famous and noteworthy person working on the film- being the example to get his point across.

 

Agreed. I imagine Williams is just another face of Hollywood excess that he came to loathe. 

 

You can see through the entires that Cuaron's film was the only one he was actually rather happy with and fond of.

[Disco Stu 15468]

To be fair, Rickman also thought Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, one of the worst movies I've seen in a theater in my life, was "absolutely ravishing," so his own personal taste might not be something to put any stock by 

[Not Mr. Big 4048]

2 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

To be fair, Rickman also thought Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, one of the worst movies I've seen in a theater in my life, was "absolutely ravishing," so his own personal taste might not be something to put any stock by 

He meant ravishing in a bad way

[bollemanneke 2870]

HP1 is as perfect as it could be. But as fantastic as the score might be, I do agree its mix is overbearing.

[A. A. Ron 850]

I seem to recall a fairly prominent film reviewer at the time said something about Williams score “never shutting up.”

[Richard Penna 2506]

They're not wrong. As great a score as it is as a musical experience, it's really loud in the film in some sections.

 

I can easily imagine that if someone is of a mentality where they don't particularly go for large scale orchestral music or prefer more chamber-like scores, this will feel very OTT.

[Naïve Old Fart 7517]

So, Alan Rickman thought that the score for HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE was "hideous", did he?

He's wrong.

[mrbellamy 5622]

It's music made to be noticed so it's either gonna hit your ears as majestic as a peacock, or as hideous (garish, gaudy, lurid...) as a peacock. It's John Williams so better than 50% odds it'll be majestic but what's a sarcastic English thespian to do with a Harry Potter soundtrack, really. 

 

The funniest and probably most unsurprising thing reading these diary entries is how blase he was about the HP experience in general. "Cameras rehearse before actors" sounds about right. I'm glad he stuck it out. 

 

I love picturing him and Maggie Smith cracking up as he attempts his "unlearnable" speech in DD's office in GOF. I assume he's referring to "Headmaster, I, too, find it difficult to believe this mere coincidence. However, if we are to truly discover the meaning of these events, perhaps we should, for the time being, let them unfold." 

[Luke Skywalker 1440]

Hideous isnt like a horrid thing, like the deformed face of a zombie? Or some backstabber lurking in the shadows?

 

I dont see the musical meaning...

[BB-8 1732]

Was he referring to Hooper?

[Holko 8024]

My first thought reading it was that his brain was running quicker and he just wrote the wrong word down, it doesn't fit into that sentence.

[Jay 30997]

@mrbellamy why did you use the Report button on your own post?

 

I didn't even know that was possible! 

[Holko 8024]

You just need to look at any post of your own to see you have the report button there. We non-mods have it too.

[Remco 647]

It’s interesting to read this from a guy like Rickman and I remember also Norman Lebrecht’s comment that it ‘completely failed to match a kids movie about wizards’ or something like that.

 

Actually  the kids that grew up with it all love the score and it’s a huge part of the nostalgia for these films. Williams knows all too well what to do for this kind of film…

[A. A. Ron 850]

9 minutes ago, Jay said:

@mrbellamy why did you use the Report button on your own post?

 

I didn't even know that was possible! 

That’s been an option this whole time?

 

…

 

Be right back, I’ve got a bunch of posts to report!

[mrbellamy 5622]

13 minutes ago, Jay said:

@mrbellamy why did you use the Report button on your own post?

 

I didn't even know that was possible! 

 

Butterfingers. Nor did I.

[Andy 2215]

Geez. Maybe he was still in character from one of his Michael Kamen scored films. 

[Edmilson 4504]

Maybe he would've liked the score better if it was a minimalistic, all synth, unintrusive and completely devoid of emotion, like those scores these days that get all of the awards.

[publicist 4635]

14 hours ago, Remco said:

Actually  the kids that grew up with it all love the score and it’s a huge part of the nostalgia for these films. Williams knows all too well what to do for this kind of film…

 

A back-handed compliment, really. When i think what my generation loved when we were kids, man...

 

Put on a very simplistic level it's of course true that JW wrote a memorable tune and the opening celeste is instantly recognizable. But back in 2001, a lot of people, and i mean not Alan Rickman, complained about the sheer overscoring and loudness of the score as mixed in the movie, especially in its first half.

 

For a film music fan this can be rewarding, for a patron trapped in a movie house, maybe less so. Williams was in full Episode 1 swing back then and it probably would have needed a director as strong as Cuaron (part 3) to reign him in a bit.

[BB-8 1732]

Darth Hideous

[Remco 647]

5 hours ago, publicist said:

 

A back-handed compliment, really. When i think what my generation loved when we were kids, man...

 

Put on a very simplistic level it's of course true that JW wrote a memorable tune and the opening celeste is instantly recognizable. But back in 2001, a lot of people, and i mean not Alan Rickman, complained about the sheer overscoring and loudness of the score as mixed in the movie, especially in its first half.

 

For a film music fan this can be rewarding, for a patron trapped in a movie house, maybe less so. Williams was in full Episode 1 swing back then and it probably would have needed a director as strong as Cuaron (part 3) to reign him in a bit.

All I’m saying the score does what it needs to do for the intended audience. I have never heard anyone complain about overscoring except some movie buffs on the internet. And Columbus could’ve toned down the score in post-production, right? I assume he didn’t for a reason.

[publicist 4635]

54 minutes ago, Remco said:

All I’m saying the score does what it needs to do for the intended audience. I have never heard anyone complain about overscoring except some movie buffs on the internet. And Columbus could’ve toned down the score in post-production, right? I assume he didn’t for a reason.

 

 

Of course he did it for a reason, it just happened to be the wrong one (but that movie is awful, with or without the relentless scoring).

 

And back then, i can assure you, people were complaining: i remember because i worked in a local Multiplex during my university days and i had to take the complaints.

 

[crocodile 6862]

I reckon people were complaining mostly about the first act? I can understand why.

 

As for Mr Rickman, someone else didn't like the music I like. What else is new? 

 

Karol

[Richard Penna 2506]

I saw the film in a screening with my Dad's work in a very small cinema and I definitely remember the music during the first act was really loud and upfront in several scenes. Letters arriving, opening the vault, then crossing the lake. I wouldn't say it's overscored as the music should be there, but it's orchestrated and mixed really loudly.

[Remco 647]

29 minutes ago, publicist said:

 

 

Of course he did it for a reason, it just happened to be the wrong one (but that movie is awful, with or without the relentless scoring).

 

And back then, i can assure you, people were complaining: i remember because i worked in a local Multiplex during my university days and i had to take the complaints.

 

Interesting. I guess that I just like the music so much that it never bothered me…

[Datameister 1650]

The first act of definitely hurt by the repetitive overuse of Hedwig's theme. All of the statements individually work, but there are too many of them.

 

Volume-wise, I hadn't thought about it in years, but I do seem to recall the music being loud in the theater. And Williams did unleash some true fortissimo passages, e.g. the title card and the reveal of the stone at Gringotts. Then again, movies in general were very loud to me back then. Sometimes they still are.

[Joni Wiljami 1163]

What is wrong with you people? It's perfect as it is. And I would say Azkaban(best score of those three) mix is annoying, music is way too low. But hey, I love Williams.

[Datameister 1650]

1 hour ago, Sergeant said:

What is wrong with you people? It's perfect as it is. And I would say Azkaban(best score of those three) mix is annoying, music is way too low. But hey, I love Williams.

 

I wasn't complaining, personally; just saying that you'd be hard-pressed to ignore the music.

[Tom 3387]

Isn't publishing a dead man's diary a bit creepy?  

[Marian Schedenig 6220]

8 minutes ago, Tom said:

Isn't publishing a dead man's diary a bit creepy?  

 

No: "The Diaries of Alan Rickman, written by the actor until his death with the intention of one day publishing them, will be released in autumn 2022" (The Guardian)

[Joni Wiljami 1163]

6 minutes ago, Datameister said:

 

I wasn't complaining, personally; just saying that you'd be hard-pressed to ignore the music.

 

My comment wasn't for you personally, just the overall attitude of this thread, so many people annoyed by the heavy orchestral music. Same people here can't stand the music in the end of E.T. , too much for them. Huzzah

[Jay 30997]

The overall attitude of this thread is not that people are annoyed with orchestral music.  How did you read this thread and come away with that interpretation?

[Joni Wiljami 1163]

5 minutes ago, Jay said:

The overall attitude of this thread is not that people are annoyed with orchestral music.  How did you read this thread and come away with that interpretation?

 

Orchestral music too heavily orchestrated,  too loud mixed. That's the problem if you read it right?

[Jay 30997]

A couple people here observed that it was loud, nobody here complained that it was loud

[Joni Wiljami 1163]

Semantics!! The one who observed it was too loud agreed those comments! Well totally useless to argue, you can always ban me. Bye.

[Disco Stu 15468]

Speaking as someone who still loves the books, the first two movies (and the last five) are pretty terrible, but of course I adore the scores and I listen to Stone/Chamber as novel-inspired tone poems really.

 

For Rickman, I think it's clear that he got a lot of satisfaction from playing that character over many years, even if the films weren't his thing as a viewer.

[Jay 30997]

Exactly!  "the one" is not "the overall attitude of this thread" , right?

 

People on this website love JW's Harry Potter scores, including the majority of the people in this thread!

 

They are great!

 

Everything does not have to be turned into an argument