World Premiere CD Release. New remastered and expanded edition. 12-page CD booklet with French and English liner notes by Christian Lauliac. Limited edition of 500 units.
In collaboration with BMG and EMI Music Publishing France, Music Box Records proudly presents on the same album three original motion picture soundtracks which highlight the collaboration between composer Philippe Sarde and Pierre Granier-Deferre: L’Homme aux yeux d’argent (The Man with the Silver Eyes, 1985), Cours privé (Private Tuition, 1986) and Une étrange affaire (Strange Affair, 1981). In addition, the album also features the score of Que les gros salaires lèvent le doigt ! (Will the High Salaried Workers Raise Their Hands!, 1982), directed by Denys Granier-Deferre.
This album presents the composer’s versatility that takes the listener on a discovery of the jazz score composed for L’Homme aux yeux d’argent, highlighting some legendary jazz soloists of their time: Herbie Hancock, Toots Thielemans, Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, Clark Terry. In contrast, the lyrical score of Cours privé combines the timbre of Joe Beck's electric guitar with the impressionist piano and the soft strings of the Orchestre de Paris. The music of Une étrange affaire (only released on a 45 rpm when the film was released in theaters) is finally presented in an expanded version and lets admire one of the jewels of the collaboration between Philippe Sarde and the filmmaker of The Cat, The Widow Couderc or The Train. Three scores for one of the composer's favorite filmmakers, including Que les gros salaires lèvent le doigt ! with an openly pop style single theme. A musical quartet placed under the seal of musical inventiveness and a beautiful faithfulness that has become almost family-like for the occasion.
The program has been assembled, produced and supervised by Philippe Sarde and Édouard Dubois. This present edition has been fully remastered from complete scoring session elements and includes previously unreleased tracks. The CD comes with a 12-page booklet with liner notes by Christian Lauliac, discussing the films and the scores. The release is limited to 500 units.
L'HOMME AUX YEUX D'ARGENT 1. Retour (3:57) 2. Errances (3:32) 3. Complicité (1:24) 4. Butin (1:36) 5. Solitudes (1:23) 6. Projets (5:48) 7. Convoitises (3:49) 8. Le plan (4:09) 9. Souvenirs (0:41) 10. Le braquage (2:23) 11. Une autre vie (3:40) 12. Dénouement (2:53) Time • 35:24
COURS PRIVÉ 13. Thème Générique (2:13) 14. Cours privé (2:15) 15. Mort de Ketti (0:35) 16. Labo photo (1:54) 17. Cours Ketti (0:35) 18. Comme un jeu (0:56) 19. Nouveau départ (1:42) 20. Les baisers (2:41) Time • 13:12
UNE ÉTRANGE AFFAIRE 21. Une étrange affaire (3:39) 22. Thème de Malair (3:46) 23. Séduction (2:50) 24. Intrusion (3:15) 25. Soumission (2:02) 26. Perdition (1:50) Time • 17:41
QUE LES GROS SALAIRES LÈVENT LE DOIGT ! 27. Vento di maggio (3:19) Performed by Drupi 28. Que les gros salaires lèvent le doigt ! (3:32) 29. Que les gros salaires lèvent le doigt ! (Maquette) (3:30) Time • 10:26
Thanks for the news. Music Box are certainly big fans of the 80s.
During the last few years MBR have released Sarde scores from the 70s, the 80s and the 90s. So what´s the point? And why should Sarde´s scores from the 70s be so much better than those from the 80s? I don´t get this at all. This is a superb CD release with a lot of music which is issued now for the first time ever. There was only a single of UNE ÉTRANGE AFFAIRE in 1981 with just two tracks - here on the other hand we get the full score with about 18 minutes - and COURS PRIVÉ had not been available at all previously (just one track - "Les baisers" - on the Sarde 6 CD box last year, but nothing else). Ok, there were about 9 minutes from L´HOMME AUX YEUX D´ARGENT on a Universal CD many years ago, but again there is much more music here now with about 35 minutes. So for me there is nothing to complain about - rather the contrary is the case - and I hope that MBR will proceed in this way in the future.
I second your thoughts, Stefan. This is a superb album, featuring unreleased material for the most part. And to get over 76' of music by Sarde on one CD is rather rare, isn't it ? I'm especially curious about COURS PRIVÉ because I didn't see again the movie since its theatrical release and can't remember the score precisely. But the other soundtracks are welcome too. I've seen UNE ÉTRANGE AFFAIRE twice and the tango-orientated music fits very well in this movie. I don't know L'HOMME AUX YEUX D'ARGENT and am impatient to play it. As for QUE LES GROS SALAIRES..., this song is really fun to listen to.
I'm especially curious about COURS PRIVÉ because I didn't see again the movie since its theatrical release and can't remember the score precisely. But the other soundtracks are welcome too.
The main theme of COURS PRIVÉ comes from another very romantic Sarde score which had been composed three years earlier and which - unbelievably - still hasn´t been released on CD till now. The orchestration in the "Générique" with the added electric guitar is completeley different - which may make it a bit difficult to identiy it - whereas the Satie-like piano track "Cours privé" (which is one of the sound clips on the MBR website) also crops up in the same way in the older score.
Thanks for the news. Music Box are certainly big fans of the 80s.
During the last few years MBR have released Sarde scores from the 70s, the 80s and the 90s. So what's the point?
The point is mainly that this thread had zero answer (apart from a comment I didn't understand about some IMDB keyword) and was soon going to be on page #2. Don't get me wrong, you may know about my score preferences from other posts but this thread is not about my preferences! If anything, the implicit message is that I'm asking what the 100s of fans of 80s scores on this forum have to say, because I'm certainly no specialist of that era.
The point is mainly that this thread had zero answer (apart from a comment I didn't understand about some IMDB keyword) and was soon going to be on page #2. Don't get me wrong, you may know about my score preferences from other posts but this thread is not about my preferences! If anything, the implicit message is that I'm asking what the 100s of fans of 80s scores on this forum have to say, because I'm certainly no specialist of that era.
Firstly, there are not 100s of fans of 80s scores by Sarde on this board. I don´t know why you come up with such a strange idea? People only come along when a really popular US score by Sarde like GHOST STORY will be released, but - with maybe one or two exceptions - not when it is only about his French scores from that period. So you can forget about "100s of fans." At least they are not on this board. In my opinion it´s a pity that almost no comments will appear when a somewhat more unknown French score by Sarde gets released on CD. But that´s a fact and it doesn´t matter at all whether it´s about a score from 1973 or 1983.
By the way, your fixation on 70s scores doesn´t really make sense to me. Sarde didn´t radically change his style when the year 1980 came about, but he remained the same - so I can´t really understand these thoughts. Furthermore, I myself am neither a fan of the 80s nor of the 70s in general, but only of outstanding film music which I can appreciate - whether it has been composed during the 50s or the 80s doesn´t matter at all. Of course, I would admit that most new scores from the last 10 or 15 years aren´t my cup of tea anymore due to the extreme stylistic changes within the soundtrack world, but I wouldn´t say that about the previous decades at least till the 90s. Certainly a decade like the 50s in general had even more to offer to me, but nevertheless there is still a sufficient amount of titles composed during the 80s or 90s which appeal to me in the same way - and particularly some French scores from that time period.
I very much like Sarde’s music. So much so, that I will buy almost any Philippe Sarde CD released without knowing the film (and in some cases without even listening to the sample tracks!). I do this because the majority of his scores that I own are enjoyable listening experiences.
In relation to the French films he scores, it is unlikely I will ever see most of them in my lifetime (and they will need subtitles if I do have the opportunity to watch them!). For me it is about the music and not the film it was in. I like his scores as he seems to have a gift for melody and he does it in a stylistic way (in most scores). His music is even better because of the variety of music styles he composes, dependent on the film he is scoring.
I bought this current CD automatically but did wonder later whether I should have listened to the sample tracks first! But I think Stefan has put my mind at rest – it should be another great Sarde CD.
It is interesting from comments made on this board that Philippe Sarde seems to have done a reasonable amount of taking music he has written before and reusing it. I have never picked up on this as I don't just listen to Sarde - I will listen to one of his CDs then maybe ten other composers then Sarde again. Does he reuse his music a lot or just on rare occasions ?
That six-CD Sarde set is outstanding. I've picked up a few of the MBR releases and look forward to this latest one (and, no, I haven't seen many of the films themselves).
It is interesting from comments made on this board that Philippe Sarde seems to have done a reasonable amount of taking music he has written before and reusing it. I have never picked up on this as I don't just listen to Sarde - I will listen to one of his CDs then maybe ten other composers then Sarde again. Does he reuse his music a lot or just on rare occasions ?
It is a well-known fact that Sarde often reused his own music in other films. For example, almost all the US films he scored have themes which had previously been composed for French films. But contrary to someone like James Horner, Sarde never made a secret of this and openly stated in interviews that he had the right to go into his own kitchen and that sometimes a theme had not been fully exploited before. Nevertheless, from the early 2000s onwards the recyclings had increased too much in my opinion. During the 70s and 80s he often wrote about 10 scores per year so that it was logical that at least some kind of recycling was necessary to keep up with this pace. Several years ago there was a thread on this board with a huge list of all his reuses. It may be certainly interesting for you even though it is not quite complete: https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=80998&forumID=1&archive=0
Thanks for the reference to the other thread. After reading through that, it is certainly a eye-opener. As you pointed out, he does not even try to hide it.
It reminds me of Nino Rota partly reusing the score to 1958 Italian comedy film, Fortunatella. for the love theme to The Godfather. However, in that case, he got caught out and as a result lost the Oscar for that year. But he did win best original score two years later for The Godfather Part II so it sounds like the Academy were willing to forget about past indiscretions!
It reminds me of Nino Rota partly reusing the score to 1958 Italian comedy film, Fortunatella. for the love theme to The Godfather. However, in that case, he got caught out and as a result lost the Oscar for that year. But he did win best original score two years later for The Godfather Part II so it sounds like the Academy were willing to forget about past indiscretions!
Rota said in an interview that for THE GODFATHER II score he was more cautious to redeem himself from the disgrace he had suffered two years earlier and therefore tried to compose new themes as much as possible so that the "Fortunella" theme was not the main theme anymore in that sequel. However, with a little bit of irony he also added that in fact he had composed the "Immigrant" main theme for GODFATHER II already in 1957 for a stage production ("L´impresario delle Smirne" by Carlo Goldoni) directed by Luchino Visconti. But of course nobody from the Academy noticed this. He therefore called his winning of the Oscar for GODFATHER II "una sfiziosa rivincita" (= a delicious revenge). It may be not that well-known, but Rota was also someone who again and again recycled his old themes. Original themes had often originated in more obscure Italian films from the 40s and early 50s which were rather unknown outside of Italy and were later reused in some of his more famous film scores during the 60s and 70s (for example in IL GATTOPARDO or THE ABDICATION). A list of his recyclings can be found in Richard Dyer´s Rota book.
It reminds me of Nino Rota partly reusing the score to 1958 Italian comedy film, Fortunatella. for the love theme to The Godfather.
By the way, in his book "Nino Rota: Le immagini & la musica" Rota biographer Pier Marco De Santi - who had access to all of his manuscripts when Rota had died in 1979 - claims that the composer also reused his melancholy main theme ("Tema di Cortis") from DANIELE CORTIS from 1947 as a secondary theme for the first GODFATHER movie. I couldn´t verify this myself till now as DANIELE CORTIS is nowadays a very rare and almost lost film which can nowhere be seen. But apparently even in 1972 almost nobody seemed to have noticed this reuse.
You're a powerhouse of information on this stuff, Stefan.
My favourite Sarde is TESS, but I also dig the Georges Lautner CD from a few years back. Other fan favourites like GHOST STORY, PIRATES and MUSIC BOX have come and gone from my collection over the years, I'm afraid, but I've always intended to explore his filmography in more detail, reused material or not. A CD like this is a nice little bundle of recommendations, although I was never a big fan of having multiple scores on the same CD, regardless of how short they are. So in my iTunes, I always split them up into their individual albums.
I'll definitely be checking out the samples for this.
It reminds me of Nino Rota partly reusing the score to 1958 Italian comedy film, Fortunatella. for the love theme to The Godfather. However, in that case, he got caught out and as a result lost the Oscar for that year. But he did win best original score two years later for The Godfather Part II so it sounds like the Academy were willing to forget about past indiscretions!
Rota said in an interview that for THE GODFATHER II score he was more cautious to redeem himself from the disgrace he had suffered two years earlier and therefore tried to compose new themes as much as possible so that the "Fortunella" theme was not the main theme anymore in that sequel. However, with a little bit of irony he also added that in fact he had composed the "Immigrant" main theme for GODFATHER II already in 1957 for a stage production ("L´impresario delle Smirne" by Carlo Goldoni) directed by Luchino Visconti. But of course nobody from the Academy noticed this. He therefore called his winning of the Oscar for GODFATHER II "una sfiziosa rivincita" (= a delicious revenge). It may be not that well-known, but Rota was also someone who again and again recycled his old themes. Original themes had often originated in more obscure Italian films from the 40s and early 50s which were rather unknown outside of Italy and were later reused in some of his more famous film scores during the 60s and 70s (for example in IL GATTOPARDO or THE ABDICATION). A list of his recyclings can be found in Richard Dyer´s Rota book.
Rota even re-used music from La Dolce Vita in The Godfather ("The Pickup") so it is not like he was trying to hide it in the first place. Rota was a from a school of classical composers where I guess that the idea of a "composition" and a "theme" were two different things. There are 100s of classical compositions based on an existing theme. I guess the Oscar distinction between original and adapted scores is way too simplistic and that is the main source of the problem.
Rota even re-used music from La Dolce Vita in The Godfather ("The Pickup") so it is not like he was trying to hide it in the first place.
The music may be a bit similar to LA DOLCE VITA, but actually comes from TOBY DAMMIT from 1968. We had already talked about the TOBY DAMMIT reuse in "The Pickup" track in this thread:
