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I FINALLY saw this movie tonight. It's been on my list for a while, due to the Corigliano score which I've owned and loved for years, but it took it being available on Netflix for me to take the plunge.
What a spectacularly good movie! Much, much better than I had anticipated. Of course, the score is extremely front and center and plays an enormous part in the effect.
Hey Thor,
If you liked ALTERED STATES on Netflix—imagine how I first saw it: on a screen 65 feet wide and 35 feet tall in 70mm six-track stereo. Magnificent film, Jordan Cronenweth's cinematography (who would do BLADE RUNNER soon thereafter), John Corigliano's thoroughly dynamic score (at the time) respected by fans, but ignored by the Academy.
Thinking about the film today, it's very obvious, that with this picture, Ken Russell understood the function of music in a film. Russell found Corigliano because he went to a concert to hear (and see) Bela Bartók's ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin—and an original piece by Corigliano was on the programme which blew the director away. Fate?
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Thinking about the film today, it's very obvious, that with this picture, Ken Russell understood the function of music in a film. Russell found Corigliano because he went to a concert to hear (and see) Bela Bartók's ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin—and an original piece by Corigliano was on the programme which blew the director away. Fate?
Perhaps! According to John Corigliano, Russell temptracked the film with The Miraculous Mandarin (as well as Stravinsky) -- which made the composer cringe a bit, as it invested the movie with (in his words) a "creature features" feel.
Russell however supported Corigliano 100% in being as experimental as possible with the music -- as did studio executive Daniel Melnick (who was himself very musically-cultured). The composer was also excited by the musical possibilities offered by the film (in particular the eight-minute "ape man" sequence which had virtually no dialog). The score score was nominated for an Oscar, though it (as well as The Empire Strikes Back, Tess and The Elephant Man) lost to Fame. 
Corigliano also spoke glowingly of the Los Angeles session players who performed the score, praising them as the best in the world (no small compliment from a man whose work has been recorded by the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony and LSO). Dan Wallin was actually the engineer who recorded the score, but was he not credited.
As a film, I find Altered States to be very underrated. The script is quite literally "trippy", but compelling, with sharp dialog, and expertly played by an first-rate cast. It's a little over-the-top at times, but you have admire a major Hollywood studio backing a science fiction movie aimed at more mature audiences, in the era of Close Encounters and Star Wars. The effects hold-up very well by today's standards, and possesses a convincingly organic quality, which is refreshing in our age of "mouse click" cinema.
It's a pity Russell did not stay in Hollywood and make more films, but he said he "hated the smog" and decided to return to his home in Borrowdale.
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Yeah i saw it first run in 70mm.
Amazing!
Brm
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I felt there were several links between the FX work here and what Douglas Trumbull did in BRAINSTORM a few years later. The "trippy" sequences are, however, more in line with Kubrick's 2001 than anything later. Not very 'organic', perhaps (some of the rear projection things in the flashes look 'cheap') -- but its own kind of raw beauty in the same sense Lynch would apply postmodern superficiality and collage in the new TWIN PEAKS series.
Actually there were no rear projection shots. They only used matte shots. Several sequences (such as the whirlpool in the floor), utilized practical (as opposed to optical) effects -- which are very striking to behold in our age of CGI.
The original director of Altered States was Arthur Penn, but he was fired during pre-production. Russell claimed he was the 27th director the studio approached to replace Penn. He almost didn't take the job, but his previous film (Valentino) had bombed and he was in need of cash!
Writer Paddy Chayefsky had it in his contract that no alterations could be made to his script -- and was meddling in production decisions from the start. Chayefsky took exception to the look of the sets created for the scenes set in Boston's Beacon Hill. Asked whether he had actually ever been to Beacon Hill, the writer admitted he had not (he was envisioning the Bronx in the script).
After Russell started shooting, Chayefsky was present on the set, constantly monitoring the director, and complaining about Russell's choices (Chayefsky for instance didn't like the color of the isolation tank, and on another occasion complained abut the lighting of a scene).
At one point, when shooting the restaurant scene, Chayefsky even took two of the actors aside and told them they were playing to scene "too drunk".
In exasperation Russell finally had Chayefsky barred from the set. Even then, Russell on one occasion was obliged interrupt shooting, to telephone Chayefsky in New York, and get clearance regarding one scene.
Despite the fact not a single word was changed in Chayefsky's script, he ultimately had his named removed from the credits.
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Posted: |
Sep 14, 2018 - 5:52 AM
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By: |
Hurdy Gurdy
(Member)
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Playing this now (thanks for the reminder FSM dudes).
This really shook me up when I first bought the LP, back in the early 80's.
I think it kicked down a few doors for me, in what I thought I would/could listen to and like.
To think, this and QUEST FOR FIRE were (subconsciously) steering me towards Stravinsky and such, while Williams, Goldsmith, Barry, Morricone and Jarre had LP's to be discovered on an almost daily basis.
And the likes of Horner, Poledouris and Broughton were just gettin' started.
Man, it sucks to be now!!
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Posted: |
Sep 14, 2018 - 9:18 AM
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By: |
bobbengan
(Member)
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Playing this now (thanks for the reminder FSM dudes).
This really shook me up when I first bought the LP, back in the early 80's.
I think it kicked down a few doors for me, in what I thought I would/could listen to and like.
To think, this and QUEST FOR FIRE were (subconsciously) steering me towards Stravinsky and such, while Williams, Goldsmith, Barry, Morricone and Jarre had LP's to be discovered on an almost daily basis.
And the likes of Horner, Poledouris and Broughton were just gettin' started.
Man, it sucks to be now!!
Consider this, Kev - I wasn't even aloive yet when any of those guys were in their prime. I've never had the thrill of discovering such music when it was freshly born to the world!
Anyway...
Thor, I'm glad you dug the film. I also just love it to death. It's the wild, brilliant, wonderful and desperately alive type of storytelling and filmmaking I aspire to in my own work. Corigliano's score is aces all around and a perfect example of what happens when a filmmaker allows his composer the freedom to soar boldly and audaciously.
Charlie Haid, who plays Parrish in the film, was a mentor of mine in film school. He's mostly known as a TV director today (Breaking Bad, ER and dozens more - actually worked with Joel McNeely a ton as well including on IRON WILL and SALLY HEMMINGS, about whom he spoke very positively) but for me the best facet of learning form the man were his recollections of working on this film, back when he was a total unknown. He claims Chayefsky himself approached him after the film's premier, grumbling that Haid was the "only damn decent thing" about the film!
As for Chayefsky himself, yes, he was famously curmudgeonly. However, I also believe he might have been the most gifted writer of dialogue to ever live. This, NETWORK... No one else comes close to this kind of brilliance, at least not in the English-speaking canon. Maybe only David Mamet.
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