In honor of David Lean’s upcoming 100th birthday, in 2008, Milan Entertainment has released a special edition DVD/CD of a tribute concert which was recorded live at the Barbican Center in London in 1992, a month after David Lean’s death. Maurice Jarre, French composer, composed the scores to 4 of David Lean’s films: Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, Ryan’s Daughter, and Passage to India, and he conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the David Lean tribute. Jarre was a very close friend to Lean, and you can feel his emotion at certain points of the concert, the sense of loss for his friend, and the focus it takes to keep his mind on the job at hand. It’s very moving to watch. The concert was recorded live, so obviously that means: one take, no do-overs, and they only had 7 cameras. It is extraordinary how those 7 cameras actually feel like 20, with the angles and perspectives provided throughout the concert. It is beautifully done, and I’m so pleased that this treasure is now available to the public.
The special edition DVD has audio commentary by Mr. Jarre. He talks about the work it took to pull the concert off, they only had two rehearsals, and he also reminisces about his association with David Lean, and what it was like to work on these extraordinary pictures with him. You get wonderful glimpses into how David Lean worked. Maurice Jarre said that Lean taught him perfectionism.
Maurice Jarre started out in France, and did quite well, and it was the score he composed for Sundays and Cybele which attracted the attention of Hollywood. It was nominated for Best Score. Sam Spiegel, mogul extraordinaire, honed in on Jarre as the man who should compose the score to his upcoming picture, Lawrence of Arabia. The interesting thing about this was that the music for Sundays and Cybele only made up about 10 minutes of the film, and there were only a couple of instruments involved. And here he was, being asked to compose (at very short notice) over 2 hours of music, for a 100-piece orchestra! But Spiegel knew an artist when he heard one. I love the idea of Jarre rising to the challenge, saying “Yes” to this unbelievable opportunity. There were all kinds of issues involved with hiring him, since the score was going to be recorded in London, and Spiegel was concerned that he already had too many “foreigners” involved in the picture, and Hollywood wouldn’t take kindly to that. Additionally, the British government would not provide a subsidy for the recording unless a British person conducted the orchestra. Jarre didn’t mind that. The job was big enough to keep him occupied. However, when Adrian Boult, the British conductor, was brought in for the rehearsal, and Jarre explained to him how recording for a film works, how you have to keep an eye on the chronometer, and an eye on the screen – as well as conducting the orchestra – a look of panic came over Boult’s face. He said, “I don’t know how to do that!” Eventually, Jarre ended up conducting the orchestra, except on the film credits Adrian Boult is listed as the conductor, in order to get the British subsidies. However, when the record was released of the score, Jarre was listed as the conductor. And nobody noticed or said a word about it, that two people apparently conducted that score. And Boult never conducted a note!
The collaboration between Lean and Jarre was highly successful, and Jarre won three Oscars, for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago (I can hear that score in my head now!) and A Passage to India. Jarre describes Lean’s way of working, his theory of music in film. They were very much in sync, which is why it was such a fruitful working relationship. Lean did not believe that music should underline the events. Jarre said that only very rarely did Lean go in that direction. He was more interested in having music that showed what could not be showed visually. And isn’t that the best kind of score? The most memorable? I am always annoyed by music that merely underlines what I already see. For example, Jarre describes the moment in Lawrence of Arabia when the little boy is out in the desert, all alone, staring around him. And then, on the far horizon, he sees a small black dot, and slowly the black dot approaches … until you get that great shot of the two figures coming towards each other across the sandy panorama. It’s magnificent. And the music swells to an almost unbearable crescendo, it’s goosebump time! Jarre said that David Lean said to him, “We need something here that tells us what the little boy is feeling.” This is Jarre’s favorite kind of composing.
Another example of this (and it was one of my favorite stories in the interview Christian Lauliac does with Jarre which is also included in the special edition disc) is the Indian statue sequence in Passage to India, when Judy Davis, inhibited Victorian lady, comes across a garden of almost pornographic Indian statues. She is overwhelmed, something is stirring inside of her – it’s pleasing, but it’s also terrifying – since she has no context for the experience. She stares around, seeing the naked breasts and undulating figures, getting more and more disturbed, until finally about 5 monkeys descend on her, from a nearby tree – causing her to flee. That’s the end of the sequence. There’s not a word of dialogue. Judy Davis’ acting brings you partway there, the cinematography fills in some of the blanks, but it is the music, in the end, that completes the picture. Lean had wanted there to be 1,000 monkeys leaping out of the tree, but there was only money for 5. So he said to Maurice Jarre (and I love this line): “You have to give me the missing monkeys with your music.” And that’s exactly what Jarre did.
The concert itself is broken down into 7 parts: the introductory “Remembrance”, the “Ryan’s Daughter” suite, the “Passage to India” suite, the “Doctor Zhivago” suite, a special piece of music composed by Jarre for David Lean’s wedding, the “Passage to India: Garden of Statues” (where Jarre and the orchestra demonstrate how music is recorded for film, with the chronometer and the sequence projected on the wall behind), and finally, the “Lawrence of Arabia” suite. Throughout each, scenes from the film appear, but for me, the best part of the whole experience was watching Jarre himself. He was so focused, so marvelous, and he reminisced that because it was a David Lean tribute, many of the musicians brought not just their talent that day, but their hearts. It shows.
Jarre says, in the interview with Christian Lauliac, in regards to working with David Lean, “I am very careful to go in the same direction as him.”
What a beautiful statement of the nature of artistic collaboration.
Maurice Jarre – a Tribute to David Lean includes:
DVD:
Full concert (also with audio commentary by Maurice Jarre)
35 minute interview with Maurice Jarre
Filmographies and biographies of Maurice Jarre and David Lean
Essay by film critic Christian Lauliac on the careers of both men
CD:
Full concert
This sounds so fabulous. Thanks for posting it. I very much love to learn about how people work through the problems to get the results they want.
There was a bit in Lean’s biography about how the costume designer for Lawrence expressed his gradual breakdown by using sheerer and sheerer fabrics for his costume, as if he was becoming ‘ghostly’. I imagine the DVD is full of wonderful things like that.
Sal – I love that bit about the ghostly fabrics! How fascinating!
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