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The Sound of Cinema

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The Sound of Cinema
From Al Jolson to Tarantino
 
A journey in four parts following the cinematic soundtrack
 
The musical soundtrack is a significant tool in shaping the cinematic experience. Throughout almost a century of talking cinema, this tool has developed in different and varied directions.
 
In September, we will hold a series dedicated to four key episodes in the journey that music has made in the last 100 years, from concert halls to movie soundtracks. Each part will include 3-4 films and an introductory lecture by film and television composer Jonathan Bar Giora, who will also accompany the lecture with the piano.
 
Part 1: Beyond the Sound Barrier
More than thirty years, dozens of attempts, inventions, ideas and one winning film, were needed to launch the synchronous sound in the cinema. The Jazz Singer, the film that eventually broke the sound barrier, made sophisticated creative use of the new invention, brilliantly harnessing it to sound-based realms of pure human emotion, realms that did not exist in the silent film.
 
Part 2: Golden Soundtracks
 
When the sound finally reached the screen, it arrived so quickly that it was necessary, within a short time period, to enlist dozens of composers, conductors, and arrangers to invent an entirely new profession: film composer. The phenomenal box office success of the films crowned with the new sound led to a 20-year period of unprecedented cinematic prosperity, known as the "Golden Age of Hollywood." The leading films of the period were wrapped in rich soundtracks, performed by big band orchestras, dedicated orchestras that recorded soundtracks from morning to night and specialized in all the aspects that characterize the art that had just come into the world: uncompromising precision in timings and performance, strict recording discipline, quick and precise reading of notes, meticulous conducting in front of a picture and more.
 
Part 3: Jazz and Cinema
 
In the 1950s, several deep currents shook the stable, super-profitable structure of Hollywood. As a result, the movie soundtracks also began to undergo a significant metamorphosis. One of the fascinating developments in those years was the creeping of jazz into movie soundtracks. Impromptu, impudent sounds, which on the face of them completely contradict the basic insights in the theory of careful composition for the image, breathed a new and refreshing spirit into film soundtracks, and by also added new meanings to the relationship between sound and image.
 
Chapter 4: The Soundtracks Directors
 
With the development and perfection of the art of composing for a picture, there were also directors who preferred not to entrust the soundtracks of their works to others, and became a kind of DJ for their films. The most prominent of them - Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, and Quentin Tarantino - concocted a mixture of pop songs, classical compositions, earlier film soundtracks and commissioned works for their films, in order to create a body of work that expanded the art of creating soundtracks to fascinating new realms.
Beyond the Sound Barrier

The Transition from Silent to Talking Film

A winning combination of singing, jazz, heart-wrenching melodrama and a historical aura that will probably never fade. Speaker: Jonathan Bar Giora (in Heb.) 

The Jazz Singer

Dir.: Alan Crossland
| 90 minutes

Despite his father's disapproval, the son of a pious cantor becomes a famous jazz singer. Years later, he returns home to make amends with his dying father, singing "Kol Nidre.” The Jazz Singer, the first film to have a synchronized soundtrack, changed the face of cinema.
Beyond the Sound Barrier
Silent cinema reached creative heights in the 1920s, which made it even more difficult for the arrival of talking cinema. Alongside the like of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd perfected the romantic slapstick comedy of the era.

Safety Last!

Dir.: Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
| 74 minutes

A crazy silent comedy about an ambitious young man. Includes Lloyd's famous, hair-raising climb up the side of a building. 
Beyond the Sound Barrier
Nine years after the start of synchronized sound and basically alome in battle, Chaplin insisted on continuing to make silent films. Modern Times does make use of synchronous sound, but in a satirical, very selective way

Modern Times

Dir.: Charlie Chaplin
| 85 minutes

Chaplin’s unforgettable attack on the machine age, which became the symbol of a whole era. Modern Times is one of the greatest films in cinema history: funny, clever, sincere, and humane. 
Beyond the Sound Barrier
A witty and fast-paced comedy, which enjoys a wide-ranging symphonic musical soundtrack right at the beginning of the Golden Age of cinema. Composer W. Franke Harling concocted from a comprehensive musical canvas, from limited materials 

Trouble in Paradise

Dir.: Ernst Lubitsch
| 83 minutes

Two jewel thieves attach themselves to the staff of a wealthy widow, but romance complicates matters. A witty script, well written and executed characters, and the brilliant Lubitsch touch bring forth this masterful comedy. 
Beyond the Sound Barrier
A witty and fast-paced comedy, which enjoys a wide-ranging symphonic musical soundtrack right at the beginning of the Golden Age of cinema. Composer W. Franke Harling concocted from a comprehensive musical canvas, from limited materials 

Trouble in Paradise

Dir.: Ernst Lubitsch
| 83 minutes

Two jewel thieves attach themselves to the staff of a wealthy widow, but romance complicates matters. A witty script, well written and executed characters, and the brilliant Lubitsch touch bring forth this masterful comedy. 
Golden Soundtracks

The Golden Age of the Grand Symphonic Soundtrack

This adaptation of the famous drama enjoys one of the most wonderful soundtracks by one of the greatest Hollywood composers, Alfred Newman, whose sound is synonymous with pure emotion. Speaker: Jonathan Bar Giora (in Heb.)

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Dir.: William Dieterle
| 117 minutes

This adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel is Hollywood in all its glory - imaginative artistic direction, striking sets, extensive costumes, rich camera work, stylish lighting, and above all brilliant direction and performances.
Golden Soundtracks
The soundtrack moves between points of view, from the background to the foreground, from individual instruments to orchestra, between moments of intimacy to wide-spread scenes - which enriches the dramatic dimension and accelerates it.

Ben-Hur

Dir.: William Wyler
| 223 minutes

1st century, Jerusalem. Two childhood friends – a local nobleman and a Roman legion officer – clash over the nobleman’s ambitions for independence. He is sent to Rome, becomes a champion charioteer, and plans his revenge. Ben-Hur is one of the great achievements of the cinema.
Golden Soundtracks
Composer Max Steiner reaches one of the peaks of his career, using the theme song and the two national anthems (of France and Germany) in a virtuoso manner to concoct a multifaceted, varied, delightful, and unforgettable soundtrack

Casablanca

Dir.: Michael Curtis
| 102 minutes

Everyone visits Rick’s cafe in Casablanca under the Vichy regime. Underneath the exterior of a cynical cafe owner, hides a tough romantic who has to choose between the heart and ideals, when his former lover reenters his life. A treat to be seen over and over again.
Golden Soundtracks
Hitchcock's masterpiece rests on the masterful sound work by Bernard Herrmann, who wrapped this sophisticated thriller in equally sophisticated layers of sounds orchestrated with revolutionary techniques

Vertigo

Dir.: Alfred Hitchcock
| 127 minutes

A haunting, dreamlike thriller about a retired police detective who is hired by an old-school chum to keep an eye on his wife. Vertigo, chosen by Sight & Sound periodical as the best film ever made, is cinema at its very best – entertaining, deceptive, thrilling. 
Golden Soundtracks
Composer Max Steiner reaches one of the peaks of his career, using the theme song and the two national anthems (of France and Germany) in a virtuoso manner to concoct a multifaceted, varied, delightful, and unforgettable soundtrack

Casablanca

Dir.: Michael Curtis
| 102 minutes

Everyone visits Rick’s cafe in Casablanca under the Vichy regime. Underneath the exterior of a cynical cafe owner, hides a tough romantic who has to choose between the heart and ideals, when his former lover reenters his life. A treat to be seen over and over again.
Jazz and Cinema

How Did the Boy of Music Snuck into Movie Soundtracks

The erotic-jazzy soundtrack composed by Alex North, together with Brando’s raw performance, caused quite a stir. It was only years later that jazzy sounds were welcomed in movie soundtracks. Speaker: Jonathan Bar Giora (in Heb.)

A Streetcar Named Desire

Dir.: Elia Kazan
| 122 minutes

Blanche, a vulnerable young woman of an impoverished southern family, becomes an alcoholic and a nymphomaniac. A daring classic that should not be missed.
Jazz and Cinema
The completely improvised music that Miles Davis wrote-played-recorded for this film became a milestone, not only in the history of film soundtracks, but also in the history of jazz

Elevator to the Gallows

Dir.: Louis Malle
| 89 minutes

A young man murders his boss with the complicity of the victim's wife but is nearly punished for a crime he did not commit. Louis Malle, in his debut feature, creates a mood of dark tension and psychological depth, accompanied by an original score by Miles Davis.
Jazz and Cinema
The legendary musical producer and composer Quincy Jones decided in the mid-1960s to write music for films. Already in his first work, Quincy integrated jazz into the soundtrack in a way that shattered quite a few stigmas and boundaries,

The Pawnbroker

Dir.: Sidney Lumet
| 114 minutes

Sol Nazerman, a Jewish pawnbroker in Harlem, lives with haunting memories of the Holocaust. An important and engrossing film shot on location in N.Y.C. 
Jazz and Cinema
Alon Gur Arye (in Heb.) about the life and work of comedy genius Peter Sellers

The Pink Panther

Dir.: Blake Edwards
| 114 minutes

The opening film of the series introduces bumbling Inspector Clouzeau - and the cartoon character featured in the opening titles. The "Pink Panther" is in fact a famous diamond and Clouzeau tries to catch the man who stole it.  
Jazz and Cinema
The completely improvised music that Miles Davis wrote-played-recorded for this film became a milestone, not only in the history of film soundtracks, but also in the history of jazz

Elevator to the Gallows

Dir.: Louis Malle
| 89 minutes

A young man murders his boss with the complicity of the victim's wife but is nearly punished for a crime he did not commit. Louis Malle, in his debut feature, creates a mood of dark tension and psychological depth, accompanied by an original score by Miles Davis.
Jazz and Cinema
The erotic-jazzy soundtrack composed by Alex North, together with Brando’s raw performance, caused quite a stir. It was only years later that jazzy sounds were welcomed with open arms and ears to movie soundtracks. 

A Streetcar Named Desire

Dir.: Elia Kazan
| 122 minutes

Blanche, a vulnerable young woman of an impoverished southern family, becomes an alcoholic and a nymphomaniac. A daring classic that should not be missed.
The Soundtrack Directors
Jonathan Bar Giora (in Heb.) on the directors who configure the music that accompanies their films 

A Clockwork Orange

Dir.: Stanley Kubrick
| 136 minutes

After being sentenced to a long prison term, Alex volunteers for a rehab program from violence. At the end of the program he returns to the streets and discovers that the world is not forgiving. In a career full of masterpieces, The Clockwork Orange is still considered a pinnacle of cinema that should be experienced on the big screen.
The Soundtrack Directors
Scorsese paved the brilliant mafia epic with songs of the period, and the result not only influences the atmosphere, but gives an ironic dimension to what is happening on the screen

GoodFellas

Dir.: Martin Scorsese
| 146 minutes

The story of the rise and fall of an Irish lad working his way to the top of the Italian mafia in New York. Virtuoso cinematography, hypnotic acting, and editing and a soundtrack that load the film with endless energy. 
The Soundtrack Directors
For Tarantino, the recording and selection of songs for the soundtrack is a significant player in the cinematic experience: an immediate tool for the accuracy of time and place, and a means of injecting into the happening an external perspective

Pulp Fiction

Dir.: Quentin Tarantino
| 149 minutes

An anthology of stories about L.A. gangsters whose fun and games can be deadly. With deliciously corrupt characters, witty dialogues, the distinctive direction style, the brilliant musical choices, Pulp Fiction is without a doubt a classic that should be enjoyed on the big screen.
Golden Soundtracks
Hitchcock's masterpiece rests on the masterful sound work by Bernard Herrmann, who wrapped this sophisticated thriller in equally sophisticated layers of sounds orchestrated with revolutionary techniques

Vertigo

Dir.: Alfred Hitchcock
| 127 minutes

A haunting, dreamlike thriller about a retired police detective who is hired by an old-school chum to keep an eye on his wife. Vertigo, chosen by Sight & Sound periodical as the best film ever made, is cinema at its very best – entertaining, deceptive, thrilling. 
The Soundtrack Directors

A Clockwork Orange

Dir.: Stanley Kubrick
| 136 minutes

After being sentenced to a long prison term, Alex volunteers for a rehab program from violence. At the end of the program he returns to the streets and discovers that the world is not forgiving. In a career full of masterpieces, The Clockwork Orange is still considered a pinnacle of cinema that should be experienced on the big screen.