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Posted: |
Mar 30, 2014 - 10:29 AM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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OK, finally saw the movie.
It's pretty bad, yes, but far from the disaster it's been made out to be by those who have seen it. The silliest thing was unquestionably the realization of the football games -- allegedly between top Italian teams like Roma and Juventus, but coming off as a game in the local park with a bunch of your friends. 
The score is absolutely fantastic -- easily in my Top 10 Williams list of all time -- and it's somewhat of a tragedy that the master tapes are lost, as the film itself. It's allowed to shine in many moments, over extended periods of time and with few sound effects, tapping into lyricism, power, romance, melancholy and even James Bond-like harmonies. Like the "winter games montage" towards the end, for example.
I'm also leaning towards the realization that the main title theme -- the "Roma theme" -- is indeed an original Williams pastiche. I remember where I had heard something similar, and that was in Mikael Carlsson's composition "Cookie", of all things, which is also a pastiche piece. And maybe a little bit of Williams' own "Hart in a Hurry" from THE PAPER CHASE.
I wish someone rerecorded this. If the score sheets are not available, then restore it in the way Leigh Philips did with Goldsmith's THE SALAMANDER or something.
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Posted: |
Mar 30, 2014 - 10:55 AM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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OK, finally saw the movie.
It's pretty bad, yes, but far from the disaster it's been made out to be by those who have seen it. The silliest thing was unquestionably the realization of the football games -- allegedly between top Italian teams like Roma and Juventus, but coming off as a game in the local park with a bunch of your friends.
The score is absolutely fantastic -- easily in my Top 10 Williams list of all time -- and it's somewhat of a tragedy that the master tapes are lost. It's allowed to shine in many moments, over extended periods of time and with little sound effects, tapping into lyricism, power, romance, melancholy and even James Bond-like harmonies. Like the "winter games montage" towards the end, for example.
I'm also leaning towards the realization that the main title theme -- the "Roma theme" -- is indeed an original Williams pastiche. I remember where I had heard something similar, and that was in Mikael Carlsson's composition "Cookie", of all things, which is also a pastiche piece. And maybe a little bit of Williams' own "Hart in a Hurry" from THE PAPER CHASE.
I wish someone rerecorded this. If the score sheets are not available, then restore it in the way Leigh Philips did with Goldsmith's THE SALAMANDER or something.
THAT sounds like a great idea! I always thought obscure scores were obscure scores no matter who did them and were not commercial. That is until they did SALAMANDER. Of course the big question is "How well did SALAMANDER do?" It seemed to be on the weekly SAE top sales list for quite a while but how that translates to the cost of that rerecording I do not know. If it did decent I would think the added classical following for Williams would make this at least feasible. This suggestion probably should be moved to one of the Tadlow/Prometheus suggestion threads.
Anyway I am all for a STORY OF A WOMAN rerecording!
...and for those who have not obtained SALAMANDER I suggest grabbing it. Not only is it surprisingly good but it would be like a vote for more obscure recordings.
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I wish someone rerecorded this. If the score sheets are not available, then restore it in the way Leigh Philips did with Goldsmith's THE SALAMANDER or something.
I can confirm (after a communication I had with a person at Universal) that the orchestral parts of the score (not the full score itself) are situated at the music library of Universal, so a re-recording would be possible at any time if anyone wanted to do it!
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Posted: |
Mar 30, 2014 - 1:00 PM
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By: |
jonnyquest
(Member)
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Indeed. Of all the rerecording projects out there, this should be one of the most interesting for the labels -- and I'm flabbergasted why it isn't. OK, maybe the film is totally forgotten, but it should be able to make its money back based on John Williams' name alone.
Before "The Salamander", I really couldn't envision something like a full reconstruction/re-recording of "Storia" happening. (Not to mention any of the other unpublished Williams treasures you often cite, Thor).
But since then, well, as Oscar Hammerstein wrote: "Impossible things are happening every day!" hee hee.
I have a feeling those of us who just ache for a missing masterpiece like this to be reclaimed will have our dreams come true, eventually. Wouldn't have thought of even imagining such things until the one-two punch of the original Star Wars box set and the expanded Close Encounters came out. For me, as I listened to that material I'd wanted so much but thought could never be released, I just knew that the floodgates were opened, and I've never stopped being astonished and grateful.
When I even glance on my shelves at the greatest hits of the "Grail" era my head just explodes. The Blue Box, The 5-CD Ben Hur, Family Plot, Black Sunday, the 3 CD TMP, the much maligned Spartacus, (I love it, personally), all the Barry we thought we'd never have a note of...and that's just the barest highlights. And we all have little personal favorites that we never thought we'd hear...for me they might include the rerecorded suite from The Rare Breed, The 6-minute piece of Conrack, The Bronze Locust from the Omnibus, all the combined Irwin Allen/Lost In Space material. I sincerely never thought any of it would or could be released or recorded.
So I'm gonna be totally optimistic. The day we learn this one is in the works I'll happily throw an "I told you so" post onto this thread!
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Posted: |
Mar 30, 2014 - 1:13 PM
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By: |
jonnyquest
(Member)
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Very interesting to hear! I'm glad this was discovered. I noticed there is a Music Supervisor credit which may explain for some odd choices that I don't think Williams would have done on his own. Whenever Williams has done classical pastiche there is a link that is explainable and appropriate to the movie. This main title music feels completely tacked on. There is some similarity to things he is done but I'm going to say it isn't a Williams piece. But if I'm wrong, he wrote it to satisfy the Music Supervisor, I'm thinking. He wouldn't write something that clumsily dramatic to a scene where basically nothing is happening.
I love the thematic writing though. His ability to come up with melodies so simple, yet have such identity appropriate to the style of the movie, never ceases to amaze me. Makes me think of Jane Eyre in that he was in the part of his career when he was trying to break out of typecast, doing problematic but different films and coming up with some real gems of scores.
- Adam
Hey that's really insightful Adam. And Williams the collaborator, then and now, would likely respect the input of his Music Supervisor (and perhaps, at that stage, he'd bow even more to such creative direction even if it was against his better judgement as a composer and musical dramatist). All speculation but interesting just the same.
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Posted: |
Mar 30, 2014 - 2:15 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Thank you very much Bob DiMucci!
The 2 first minutes of music from the youtube suite we had, are missing from the film, so I guess this is from the opening scenes that are cut.
By the way, do you have any link to that Variety review of the film you mentioned?
I've only seen a printed version of the Variety review, which I've reproduced below. The second paragraph of that review mentions an "opening scene" which is nowhere to be found in the YouTube version, which would confirm that there is some pre-credits material that is missing. The one source I've seen that has a running time for the film that differs from 90 minutes is Steven H. Scheuer's book "Movies On TV." That book is a notoriously unreliable guide for accurate timings, but in this case, it may be closer to the truth than the "90 minutes" that is usually given for STORY OF A WOMAN. Scheuer lists a running time of 101 minutes for the film, which would suggest that there may be several more music cues in the film than we can currently ascertain.
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VARIETY. "Fifteen or 20 years ago, Story of a Woman might have been a highly commercial 'woman's picture.' Today it is a slick, above average 90-minute television feature. When the bedroom couplings and shots of Bibi Andersson's exposed nipples, which are dramatically extraneous to the story but give this dishonest Woman her ‘R' rating, are excised it will leave exactly enough room for commercials.
Leonardo Bercovici wrote, produced and directed, and from openers to final fadeout, he is never at a loss for just the right cliche, either verbally or visually. There are, however, moments of unintended comedy in the opening scene when Miss Andersson, a piano student in Rome, bangs into James Farentino's auto in a traffic jam. Farentino jumps from his car, is struck dumb by her Scandinavian beauty and emits ‘I don't think I've ever had an accident quite like this before.’
Farentino may be a wasp's idea of a philandering Italian husband, but by any other name he's an all-American boy. Thankfully, he doesn't attempt an Italian accent. Robert Stack [plays] an American diplomat who says to Miss Andersson, 'All I know is that I've never met anyone like you.'
The three perform their roles as if they basically don't believe them, although Miss Andersson has effective individual moments. Farentino's wealthy domineering wife is played by French actress Annie Girardot, who in a brief role speaks English with a very convincing Italian accent. Didi Perego has a brief lively scene as an Italianate floozie Farentino takes for a weekend to a Monte Carlo hotel, and her gusto as she fans herself with 45 r.p.m. records makes the appearance a flash of life and color in an otherwise tepid sudser." Rick • (2/4/70).
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Where and when can we purchase this CD? Quartet, Music Box? I'm talking to you.
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It's pretty bad, yes, but far from the disaster it's been made out to be by those who have seen it. The silliest thing was unquestionably the realization of the football games -- allegedly between top Italian teams like Roma and Juventus, but coming off as a game in the local park with a bunch of your friends.
Oh, I know what you mean . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLy1OghbCEQ
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