#bernard hermann

[missfaithfully]

Marianne Faithfull photographed by Bernard Hermann in Paris, September 1967.

[contentabnormal]

Nick Cravat as The Gremlin in The Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet"

Watercolors on paper, 8.5" x 11", 2025

By Josh Ryals

[bestfrozentreats2]

"Concerto Macabre" by Bernard Herrmann

'Herrmann's lost jewel, from the film "Hangover Square", but here it's for people to hear what I feel was one of his greatest achievements'

Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975)

[babsi-and-stella]

Marianne Faithfull during a stay in Paris, September 13, 1967. Photo by Bernard Hermann.

[cantsayidont]

May 1941. Eight decades on, the deification of CITIZEN KANE as "the greatest movie of all time" is doing it no great favors, at least in terms of persuading people to actually watch it. The title suggests a ponderous art film that will feel like homework, which some of its fans try to counter by claiming that its moody deep-focus cinematography and Bernard Hermann score make it some kind of early film noir. Neither of those things is true: CITIZEN KANE is essentially an impish pastiche of the rise-and-fall-of-the-great-man variety of Hollywood biopics, dressed up with (and held together by) a series of shameless narrative contrivances, some memorably witty dialogue, and as many inventive cinematic gimmicks as Welles could squeeze into the two-hour running time. It is, like the radio shows Welles and his Mercury Theatre company had been doing for about two and a half years beforehand, aggressively middlebrow: As Welles himself later admitted, the story really isn't that deep, but it gives the impression of depth, just as some of the clever framing devices create the illusion of a bigger cast and larger budget.

If you take it seriously, KANE, like a lot of later Welles films, is fun for a while and becomes rather dour toward the end, but taking it seriously is a mistake, and the dourness is itself a contrivance. This is a story about an old man's tragic regrets … as imagined by a 25-year-old in a bald cap and padded suit who'd made his name on the legitimate stage, where no death scene is too final to prevent a star from taking his bows after the curtain falls. It's a game, like a cat losing its mind chasing down and vanquishing a new catnip mouse, and the finale, where the plot's central contrivance comes full circle, has that same tail-in-the-air sense of triumph.

[geekynerfherder]

'Taxi Driver' by Rich Kelly.

Cover art for the double vinyl LP album for Bernard Hermann's original film score, celebrating the 40th anniversary of 'Taxi Driver', released through Waxwork Records in April 2016.

[thesociologicalcinema]

"Harlem from the ground," 1977

Photo credit: Bernard Hermann

[artlatinteriorano]

Rio de Janeiro - Bernard Hermann