I'm looking for film scores that evoke the Threepenny Opera sound and the era of the Weimar Republic. I'd also welcome non-film score suggestions outside of the proper Brecht-Weill works.
An "outside of film scores" recommendation is certainly Robert Kurka's opera "The Good Soldier Schweijk".
Hans Eisler, Paul Dessau and Paul Hindemith composed works in the "neue Sachlichkeit" with jazz elements that Weill worked in, also Erwin Schulhoff. But I'm not aware of film scores in this mould, except "Kuhle Wampe", by Eisler, of which there is an orchestral suite.
A lot of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS is Weill-inspired. Heck, even Elfman himself has said as much. If not directly, then definitely in many elements. "Sally's Song", for example. Then there's other material that is more in Cab Calloway territory, like "Oogie Boogie Song".
Have you ever seen Joseph Losey's GALILEO? - with its Brechtian approach by Hanns Eisler originally written for the stage version (which Losey himself had directed)
I'm looking for film scores that evoke the Threepenny Opera sound and the era of the Weimar Republic. I'd also welcome non-film score suggestions outside of the proper Brecht-Weill works.
Jim, you'd do very well to hear Brecht-Weill's "Surabaya Johnny" from the indifferently-received musical "Happy End". This version by Ute Lemper is actually far better, IMO, than Lotte Lenya (who was married to Brecht). This song and this version of it will knock your sox off - it did mine! I ADORE IT and it always brings me to my knees:
Jim, you'd do very well to hear Brecht-Weill's "Surabaya Johnny" from the indifferently-received musical "Happy End". This version by Ute Lemper is actually far better, IMO, than Lotte Lenya (who was married to Brecht). This song and this version of it will knock your sox off - it did mine! I ADORE IT and it always brings me to my knees:
Lotte Lenya was actually married to Kurt Weill - twice.
Parts of Ken Thorne's score for Richard Lester's "The Bedsitting Room" are very much in the vein of Weill and "Threepenny Opera". The soundtrack was released on a multi-CD set of Ken Thorne's scores from Prometheus and by Kritzerland with "Juggernaut" (copies still available on Amazon):
Try the musical CABARET, both Broadway and Movie recordings.
That has that tinny, 3rd-rate band feel one finds in a lot of Brecht-Weill scores.
And also try "Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny," or "Rise and Fall of the City Mahagonny," an opera they wrote, with perhaps the most cynical song ever written: "Den Wie Mann Sich Bettet So Liegt Mann." Or, "Then As You Make Your Bed, So Will You Lie."
I used to sing that for auditions, with a deadpan facial expression.
I missed the point of the OP - that it was about Weill-Brecht INSPIRED scores. Apologies.
"Cabaret" is an interesting case, but the film doesn't quite work for me. It seems 'derivative' rather than original - in the sense that it's so Americanized in sentiment and values ("money makes the world go around"). I think it was the casting of Minnelli and York (he's really quite second rate as an actor). Berenson was quite charming and well cast, but the film lacked that ambivalent, cynical, hard edge that you got on "Kufurstendamm" in the heady days of Berlin's decadent period. Wiemar, if you like.
It's four years later. Anyone else have any Brecht-Weill soundalike score suggestions? Hell, at this late date I would even accept song collection suggestions.
The score is pure Jerry Goldsmith, but the main theme for The List of Adrian Messenger certainly sounds to me like it was inspired in part by the Kurt Weill cabaret-for-orchestra idiom.
Goldsmith - The List of Adrian Messenger
And speaking of covers of Brecht (but not Weill), there's always Bowie's recording of Baal
