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Track Listings
| 1. The Artist Ouverture | |||
| 2. 1927 A Russian Affair | |||
| 3. George Valentin | |||
| 4. Pretty Peppy | |||
| 5. At The Kinograph Studios | |||
| 6. Fantaisie D Amour | |||
| 7. Waltz For Peppy | |||
| 8. Estancia OP. 8 | |||
| 9. Imagination | |||
| 10. Silent Rumble | |||
| 11. 1929 | |||
| 12. In The Stairs | |||
| 13. Jubilee Stomp | |||
| 14. Comme Une Rosée De Larmes | |||
| 15. The Sound Of Tears | |||
| 16. Pennies From Heaven | |||
| 17. 1931 | |||
| 18. Jungle Bar | |||
| 19. L'Ombre Des Flammes | |||
| 20. Happy Ending ... | |||
See all 24 tracks on this disc
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Editorial Reviews
Nominated for the Palme d Or at Cannes in May 2011, The Artist is a silent film directed by Michel Hazanavicius using the techniques and expressions reminiscent of old-time movie making. Composer Ludovic Bource s original music is brilliant and catchy in the spirit of Chaplin, Max Steiner and Franz Waxman and evokes the big romantic symphonic repertoire from the 19th Century. The music speaks and replaces the words it becomes part of the story and is essential to the film.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 49 people found the following review helpful
By Jon Broxton
Format:Audio CD
Each year, around this time, an unexpected art house film emerges as a critical darling with Academy Awards potential. It happened to Life is Beautiful in 1998, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in 2000, Brokeback Mountain in 2005, Juno in 2007, Slumdog Millionaire in 2008, Precious in 2009... the list goes on and on. In 2011, that film could be The Artist, director Michel Hazanavicius's story about a silent movie matinee idol in 1920s Hollywood whose career is threatened by the advent of sound in motion pictures. The difference here, unlike those other films, is that The Artist is a silent film itself, shot in black and white and in such a way that the style and tone of the piece mirrors the very films in which Hazanavicius's protagonist appears. The movie stars Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Missi Pyle and Penelope Ann Miller, and has already opened to great critical acclaim in the United States.
Back in the early part of the 20th century, films were often accompanied by a live pianist performing `photoplay music', or by an orchestra performing classical music of the day, to accentuate the mood of the film. Occasionally directors would hire composers to write original music that would be played during the film's performance - the first recorded instance of this was in 1908 when the revered classical composer Camille Saint-Saëns wrote 15 minutes of original music for the historical drama L'Assassinat du duc de Guise, and later Joseph Carl Breil's wrote a significant score for D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation in 1915 - but the first feature-length film with synchronized sound effects and a pre-recorded musical soundtrack was the 1926 film Don Juan, which had a score by William Axt and David Mendoza, and came out a year before Al Jolson changed the world with The Jazz Singer. It is against this backdrop, and with these early stylistics in mind, that French composer Ludovic Bource approached The Artist.
Ludovic Bource scored the director's previous three features - Mes Amis in 1999, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies in 2006 and OSS 117: Lost in Rio in 2009 - as well as a handful of short films and a 2009 documentary called Nous Resterons Sur Terre, but other than that is a virtual unknown, both inside France and internationally. This could all change with The Artist. Being a silent film, with all that implies (no audible dialogue, no sound effects), the music for The Artist takes on a whole new dimension, having to convey every emotion, every nuance, and every direction of the story without overwhelming the film. In his research prior to writing the music, Bource looked at the scores from Charlie Chaplin's films, as well as early works by composers such as Max Steiner, Franz Waxman and Bernard Herrmann, trying to re-create that classic sound in 2011. Remember, no-one has really scored films like this since 1936, when Charlie Chaplin released Modern Times, the last significant conventional "silent film" made before talkies became the dominant entertainment media.
On the whole, Bource has succeeded admirably, recapturing the sound of the earliest part of the Golden Age, while simultaneously crafting a score which is thematically appealing and enjoyable to modern audiences - no mean feat. Having said that, listeners unused to hearing the unashamedly romantic stylings that flourished during that period, or who are not accustomed to a total and utter lack of subtlety in their film music, are likely to be confused or, worse still, totally turned off by The Artist's intentionally old-fashioned sound.
Parts of The Artist have a Franz Waxman sound from his Bride of Frankenstein years; elsewhere, it could be Alfred Newman, Cole Porter, Gershwin, Charlie Chaplin, Carl Stalling, or an early Disney underscore by composers like Leigh Harline or Frank Churchill. At other times, Bource seems to be intentionally channeling the big romantic symphonic repertoire of the 19th century via composers such as Prokofiev, Debussy, Ravel and Brahms, all to generally excellent effect. Be aware that I'm not saying that Bource is being unoriginal with these references; it's all done to illustrate the musical conventions of a specific time and a specific place, and Bource does it with all the flair and panache of a true homage.
The theme for the main character, "George Valentin", is an infectiously upbeat string-based strut, with a prominent xylophone part and a virtuoso piano line, capturing the easy breezy life of a man about town in the golden age of silent cinema. The theme and it's orchestrations are carried over into the charming romantic piece for "Pretty Peppy", George's romantic interest, and into later cues such as the lovely and lush "Fantasie d'Amour", and the quirky "Jungle Bar".
Everything about the score is larger than life; the classic Hollywood flourishes of the opening "Artist Ouverture"; the adventurous brass phrasing and mickey-mouse Korngold-inspired action music of "1927: A Russian Affair" or "Silent Rumble", the beautiful romantic piano solo in "Comme Une Rosée de Larmes", and the stark and dissonant "L'Ombre des Flammes", which has a wonderfully chaotic and occasionally unexpectedly brutal action music conclusion that could have come straight from Steiner's King Kong. "In the Stairs" has a hesitant, almost childlike idyll, with a pretty piano line and blushing, swooning strings accompanied by delicate woodwinds, chimes and harp glissandi, capturing perfectly the burgeoning relationship between the two leads. Conversely, the more tragedy-laden "The Sound of Years" has a sense of both despondent yearning in its lower-register string writing and sweeping, grand guignol heartbreak when the violins pick up the lead of the piece during it's second half.
The score concludes in outstanding fashion, beginning with the charming and sweeping "Happy Ending", which as one might imagine is filled with lush romantic strings and flighty flute impressions. The violence of the shadow of flames from earlier in the score reappears in the rather shocking penultimate cue, "Ghosts from the Past", before everything comes to a solemn, tragic end in "My Suicide", a moving string lament which restates the Sound of Tears theme and finishes the score proper on a largely downbeat, but appropriate note of large-scale pathos.
The conclusive jazz piece, "Peppy and George", re-arranges and re-orchestrates George's buoyant theme for the big band sound of Benny Goodman, complete with a faithful homage to the classic Gene Krupa big drum sound. A couple of source cues and songs, ranging from a performance of Alberto Ginastera's ballet Estancia (which is slightly anachronistic as it was written in 1941), Duke Ellington's "Jubilee Stomp" and songs by Jay Livingston and Johnny Burke, round out the album, adding to the 1920s feel.
If The Artist continues to wow critics in independent theaters across America, and if I know the way the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences thinks - and I'm usually pretty good as predicting these things - then this score will likely take home the Oscar for Best Original Score next spring. I'm not saying this is the best score of the year - there are several which rank above it on my own personal list - but this is exactly the kind of thing the Academy likes to honor. Foreign composer, arty film, not likely to pick up many other awards in other categories... it ticks all the right boxes, for sure. It also helps that the score is genuinely very good in and of itself, despite - or perhaps because of - its authentic period sound and sensibility, which is likely to alienate younger listeners more attuned to Remote Control power anthems, but will utterly delight others.
Back in the early part of the 20th century, films were often accompanied by a live pianist performing `photoplay music', or by an orchestra performing classical music of the day, to accentuate the mood of the film. Occasionally directors would hire composers to write original music that would be played during the film's performance - the first recorded instance of this was in 1908 when the revered classical composer Camille Saint-Saëns wrote 15 minutes of original music for the historical drama L'Assassinat du duc de Guise, and later Joseph Carl Breil's wrote a significant score for D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation in 1915 - but the first feature-length film with synchronized sound effects and a pre-recorded musical soundtrack was the 1926 film Don Juan, which had a score by William Axt and David Mendoza, and came out a year before Al Jolson changed the world with The Jazz Singer. It is against this backdrop, and with these early stylistics in mind, that French composer Ludovic Bource approached The Artist.
Ludovic Bource scored the director's previous three features - Mes Amis in 1999, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies in 2006 and OSS 117: Lost in Rio in 2009 - as well as a handful of short films and a 2009 documentary called Nous Resterons Sur Terre, but other than that is a virtual unknown, both inside France and internationally. This could all change with The Artist. Being a silent film, with all that implies (no audible dialogue, no sound effects), the music for The Artist takes on a whole new dimension, having to convey every emotion, every nuance, and every direction of the story without overwhelming the film. In his research prior to writing the music, Bource looked at the scores from Charlie Chaplin's films, as well as early works by composers such as Max Steiner, Franz Waxman and Bernard Herrmann, trying to re-create that classic sound in 2011. Remember, no-one has really scored films like this since 1936, when Charlie Chaplin released Modern Times, the last significant conventional "silent film" made before talkies became the dominant entertainment media.
On the whole, Bource has succeeded admirably, recapturing the sound of the earliest part of the Golden Age, while simultaneously crafting a score which is thematically appealing and enjoyable to modern audiences - no mean feat. Having said that, listeners unused to hearing the unashamedly romantic stylings that flourished during that period, or who are not accustomed to a total and utter lack of subtlety in their film music, are likely to be confused or, worse still, totally turned off by The Artist's intentionally old-fashioned sound.
Parts of The Artist have a Franz Waxman sound from his Bride of Frankenstein years; elsewhere, it could be Alfred Newman, Cole Porter, Gershwin, Charlie Chaplin, Carl Stalling, or an early Disney underscore by composers like Leigh Harline or Frank Churchill. At other times, Bource seems to be intentionally channeling the big romantic symphonic repertoire of the 19th century via composers such as Prokofiev, Debussy, Ravel and Brahms, all to generally excellent effect. Be aware that I'm not saying that Bource is being unoriginal with these references; it's all done to illustrate the musical conventions of a specific time and a specific place, and Bource does it with all the flair and panache of a true homage.
The theme for the main character, "George Valentin", is an infectiously upbeat string-based strut, with a prominent xylophone part and a virtuoso piano line, capturing the easy breezy life of a man about town in the golden age of silent cinema. The theme and it's orchestrations are carried over into the charming romantic piece for "Pretty Peppy", George's romantic interest, and into later cues such as the lovely and lush "Fantasie d'Amour", and the quirky "Jungle Bar".
Everything about the score is larger than life; the classic Hollywood flourishes of the opening "Artist Ouverture"; the adventurous brass phrasing and mickey-mouse Korngold-inspired action music of "1927: A Russian Affair" or "Silent Rumble", the beautiful romantic piano solo in "Comme Une Rosée de Larmes", and the stark and dissonant "L'Ombre des Flammes", which has a wonderfully chaotic and occasionally unexpectedly brutal action music conclusion that could have come straight from Steiner's King Kong. "In the Stairs" has a hesitant, almost childlike idyll, with a pretty piano line and blushing, swooning strings accompanied by delicate woodwinds, chimes and harp glissandi, capturing perfectly the burgeoning relationship between the two leads. Conversely, the more tragedy-laden "The Sound of Years" has a sense of both despondent yearning in its lower-register string writing and sweeping, grand guignol heartbreak when the violins pick up the lead of the piece during it's second half.
The score concludes in outstanding fashion, beginning with the charming and sweeping "Happy Ending", which as one might imagine is filled with lush romantic strings and flighty flute impressions. The violence of the shadow of flames from earlier in the score reappears in the rather shocking penultimate cue, "Ghosts from the Past", before everything comes to a solemn, tragic end in "My Suicide", a moving string lament which restates the Sound of Tears theme and finishes the score proper on a largely downbeat, but appropriate note of large-scale pathos.
The conclusive jazz piece, "Peppy and George", re-arranges and re-orchestrates George's buoyant theme for the big band sound of Benny Goodman, complete with a faithful homage to the classic Gene Krupa big drum sound. A couple of source cues and songs, ranging from a performance of Alberto Ginastera's ballet Estancia (which is slightly anachronistic as it was written in 1941), Duke Ellington's "Jubilee Stomp" and songs by Jay Livingston and Johnny Burke, round out the album, adding to the 1920s feel.
If The Artist continues to wow critics in independent theaters across America, and if I know the way the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences thinks - and I'm usually pretty good as predicting these things - then this score will likely take home the Oscar for Best Original Score next spring. I'm not saying this is the best score of the year - there are several which rank above it on my own personal list - but this is exactly the kind of thing the Academy likes to honor. Foreign composer, arty film, not likely to pick up many other awards in other categories... it ticks all the right boxes, for sure. It also helps that the score is genuinely very good in and of itself, despite - or perhaps because of - its authentic period sound and sensibility, which is likely to alienate younger listeners more attuned to Remote Control power anthems, but will utterly delight others.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Silent films are a bit of an acquired taste for modern audiences, but from the advent of "movies" as we understand them in the early 1900's to about 1930 or so, "talkies" were essentially unthinkable. Silent films were all about image--the grand gesture, the longing look, the outstretched hand. There was no dialogue to distract the viewer from the visual medium, but there was...Music. Glamorous, dazzling music, sometimes--sometimes orchestral in sweep, sometimes tinkly and small; sometimes designed to be played live with the picture, sometimes integrated into the film, but always providing that auditory link to the emotional life of the characters the helped to hook the audience. Ludovic Bource has clearly inhabited the soul of the scores from the 1920's to early 1930's with his grand, swashbuckling gestures and his swaggering jazz era numbers. This score is, above all things, gorgeous to listen to, full of memorable tunes and generous melodies. From the toe tapping, Gershwin channeling "George Valentin" to almost Puccini-esque evocation of "In the stairs", from the lush "The Sound of Tears" to the dance hall jazz of "Peppy and George", this is a treat for the ears. Playing "spot the influence" is fun, but above all, Bource has created his own original take on the era, inspired by but not a copy of those wonderful silent film scores, inventive and playful, and a joy to discover.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Score has always been the one constant through narrative filmmaking. If modern day films share one major aspect with the silent film era (besides storytelling) it's musical score. Before filmmakers had the ability to record dialogue and sound effects they relied on live music played by a piano player inside the theater for every show. Then finally when sound could be recorded onto film music was the first thing. It's just a natural storytelling device, and to this day remains the most important aspect of filmmaking. So, what would you say if there was a silent film released in 2011? For The Artist we do indeed have a silent film made in 2011, and just like when film started out we have score front and center.
Ludovic Bource's score is a stunning reminder of how score functioned when it was the only sound the audience would here. The vital importance of this music is so unique when compared to other films today. The score on this album works hand in hand with the actors to tell every bit of the story, and what a fabulous experience it is. The music moves up and down and you can almost visualize movement because of how structured to the story it is. The score as a whole is rich and full of different sections of emotions. The characters shine through as the score defines every bit of the characters. While the score has certain genre tendencies it definitely doesn't feel like something composed back in the 30's or 40's. It does have a lot of musical stylings that represent the time period of the story, but it's no different than a modern day composer incorporating setting and atmosphere into a score. Just because the music has a 1930's feel doesn't mean the score is trying to be a score from that era. This is indeed a modern silent film score and a beautiful one at that.
It's very rare to get to experience something like this. If you wanted to you could listen to the score separately and then see the film and how it molds to the picture. Sure you can go back and watch some great Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin but having an original recording of a silent film score separate for release is a unique experience. I highly recommend everyone take a listen to Bource's magnificent work.
Ludovic Bource's score is a stunning reminder of how score functioned when it was the only sound the audience would here. The vital importance of this music is so unique when compared to other films today. The score on this album works hand in hand with the actors to tell every bit of the story, and what a fabulous experience it is. The music moves up and down and you can almost visualize movement because of how structured to the story it is. The score as a whole is rich and full of different sections of emotions. The characters shine through as the score defines every bit of the characters. While the score has certain genre tendencies it definitely doesn't feel like something composed back in the 30's or 40's. It does have a lot of musical stylings that represent the time period of the story, but it's no different than a modern day composer incorporating setting and atmosphere into a score. Just because the music has a 1930's feel doesn't mean the score is trying to be a score from that era. This is indeed a modern silent film score and a beautiful one at that.
It's very rare to get to experience something like this. If you wanted to you could listen to the score separately and then see the film and how it molds to the picture. Sure you can go back and watch some great Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin but having an original recording of a silent film score separate for release is a unique experience. I highly recommend everyone take a listen to Bource's magnificent work.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful
A silent movie is only as good as a soundtrack and this doesn't disappoint. My Suicide is one of the loveliest songs and you won't be able to stop tapping your toes to Jubilee... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ellen McCarthy
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good condition
There is nothing wrong with this product but I thought I ordered the movie and not interested in the soundtrack.
Published 1 month ago by Sheila Rollins
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great movie
Everyone should own this. Everyone should see this. But, ssshh!, don't say anything. That's because it is a silent movie.
Published 2 months ago by DotCom Editor
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fine music for a fine film
I absolutely loved the movie and am enjoying the music now. As I listen I can visualize the scenes involved and can truly appreciate the musical score that accompanied them. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Scotty
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Artist
I enjoyed seeing the DVD even though i had already seen the movie. The movie, music, and Uggie make this a DVD people will watch over and over.
Published 7 months ago by J. Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent soundtrack to a great film
Although I saw THE ARTIST in the theater in January and loved it, I decided to hold off on purchasing the soundtrack CD until the film was issued on DVD, so I could purchase both... Read more
Published 10 months ago by steve_manassas
5.0 out of 5 stars
A joy to listen to
This is a wonderful soundtrack in that it conveys all the drama and humor of the film, but also works on its own as music. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Algy
5.0 out of 5 stars
So deserving of the Oscar
I saw the movie numerous times, and I've played this CD even more. The richly layered melodies are gorgeous to listen to. Read more
Published 13 months ago by D. J. Pascua
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great music for a great movie!
The music was wonderul and so representative of the silent movie era. This movie is most likely a one of a kind in today's society, so enjoy the music!
Published 13 months ago by J. Penney
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect music for a perfect film
I adore this film and an important part of its appeal is this consistently fantastic score by Ludovic Bource as he's written wonderfully distinctive, evocative pieces for all the... Read more
Published 13 months ago by pemory
