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A subjective collection of film score composers (4/4): Ryuichi Sakamoto's 'yellow magic' cinematic journey

I'm coming to the end of this collection. My wish was to finish with the Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died last year. The three films I have decided to cover in this final article are linked by a particular focus on the body and sexuality, so that will be my common thread. Interested in music from an early age, Sakamoto began making electronic music with synthesizers at the Tokyo University of Arts and Music. He founded his first group, Yellow Magic Orchestra, in 1978 with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. Following in the footsteps of the German electronic group Kraftwerk, they became internationally famous with the release of their album in the early 1980s. It was during this decade that he began his solo career, composing for the cinema.

Promotional photograph of the band and album covers of YMO's first album (1978) and Sakamoto's first album (1980)

Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence is the film that introduced me to Sakamoto's work. In fact, it was one of the first times I realised the power of a film soundtrack. Indeed, it was unforgettable: emotional, eloquent and effective all at once. Directed in 1983 by the sulphurous Nagisa Oshima, it deals with a British prison camp in Java run by Japanese soldiers. The two main roles, Jack Celliers and Captain Yonoi, are played by David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto respectively. As you can see, the cast is already musical. But it's worth noting the presence of Japanese humorist Takeshi Kitano. For each of them, Oshima creates a counterpoint to their personas: David Bowie's character only sings once, but he is punished for it - Bowie didn't even record anything for the film. Ryuichi Sakamoto says almost nothing, but his silent mannerism and ostentatious make-up are reminiscent of traditional Japanese theatre. As for Kitano, he plays Sergeant Hara, who is both violent and friendly.

Called ‘Forbidden Colors’, the film's theme comes in a song and in two orchestral versions: a piano one and an electronic one, the two essences of Sakamoto's work. The name of the theme is significant since it deals with Sakamoto's character, Captain Yonoi, and his repressed homosexuality. His attraction to Jack Celliers is very visual. Bowie has platinum hair and blue eyes, while Sakamoto has black hair and brown eyes. Celliers responds to Japanese repression in the camp by offering Yonoi a flower, who stares at him completely taken aback. Later he kisses Yonoi's cheek, causing him to faint. Yet these "forbidden colours" are kept silent, and Celliers will pay for it.

I prefer not to go any further and leave you with some images that I hope you find as beautiful as intriguing.

Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, Nagisa Oshima (1983)

Afterwards, Sakamoto did two scores for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor and The Sheltering Sky.

The Last Emperor is a historical epic about the destiny of Puyi, the last Chinese emperor, from his coronation at the age of 2 to his imprisonment by the Chinese Communist Party. Adapted from Puyi's autobiography, the film won nine Oscars, including Best Original Score - a first for an Asian composer. By the way, Ryuichi Sakamoto plays a quiet (again) and treacherous Masahiko Amakasu Sakamoto's theme combines traditional Chinese music with the Western form of the symphony. Melancholic and epic, it always comes at decisive moments in Puyi's life. For example, when his influential mother is expelled from the Forbidden City. Or when he discovers that everyone is playing the masquerade and that China is no longer an empire. Each time, the theme emerges with a visual élan: Puyi tries to move faster than his destiny, he's always running but everything slips through his fingers.

Yet, it's impossible to ignore the way Bertolucci films bodies. Bodies in pleasure: sexual development also plays an important part in the film, as Puyi is shown becoming carnally attached to his mother over several years and then marrying two women. Bodies in pain, and therefore bodies that go against their fate... It is perhaps no coincidence that the film ends with Puyi sitting on the throne he sat on at the age of 2. The first time, young Puyi couldn't stand to be still, attracted by the immense veil of gold. The last time, Puyi finally became gold.

The Last Emperor, Bernardo Bertolucci (1987)

The Sheltering Sky, adapted from the eponymous novel by Paul Bowles, was directed in 1990. It tells the story of Kit and Port, a couple in crisis who go to North Africa with the intention of saving their marriage. There, they actually feel the need to escape the idea of being a couple by abandoning themselves to other lovers, the better to find it again.

In fact, the film begins as a kind of drama, focusing on Port's point of view, and slowly becomes Kit's odyssey. She didn't want to go on this journey, but she is forced to. And she finds her way to her own individuality, through death and various sensual experiences. At the beginning of the film, we hear Port say: "A tourist is someone who thinks of going home the moment they arrive. A traveller might not come back at all.”, which clearly sums up the film.

The Sheltering Sky, Bernardo Bertolucci (1990)

The author actually appears two times in the film and plays the role of a guide for Kit. You can see him in the same café, at the beginning and at the end, in a similar shot. It's a visual way of conveying the idea of the cyclical and circular movement of life. Kit arrived in this place and comes back completely changed. He asks her ‘Are you lost?’, and she replies serenely ‘Yes’.

The author Paul Bowles, at the beginning and at the end of the film

Winner of the Golden Globes for best soundtrack, Sakamoto's composition ranges from delicate and lyrical to melancholic and even dramatic. It can be heard during the opening sequence and at the very end, and can therefore be seen as a kind of musical translation of the film.

Last but not least, I would like to mention that Sakamoto worked with a lot of other directors, such as Brian de Palma, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Victor Schlöndorff, Pedro Almodovar, Takeshi Miike, Luca Guadagnino, Alice Winocour and Hirokazu Kore-eda. By visiting this very personal collection, I hope you will have discover or rediscover movies through their music spectrum.

Thank you for having following me!

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A subjective collection of film score composers (3/4): The sensual and the epic, or Maurice Jarre's and David Lean's collaboration

Maurice Jarre started his career as a composer at the age of 27 in 1951, at the Théâtre National Populaire. Named musical director by its director Jean Vilar, he worked twelve years for the TNP before heading to film score composition. He composed 80 works for a tremendous number of directors such as Georges Franju Jean-Pierre Mocky, Gérard Oury, Richard Fleischer, René Clément, John Frankenheimer or John Huston. Therefore, even though a choice had to be made, the focus on his collaboration with David Lean is again completely personal. These are three films I discovered at different ages but they all deeply marked me for multiple reasons. They are massive pieces, maybe impressive and frightening, but honestly, they only take a few minutes to dive into. By the way, you will notice that each film takes place in different parts of the planet during the First World War. Also, their protagonists always have a strong link to nature and they endure a lot of suffering and deep emotional struggles.

Jarre’s collaboration with the British director David Lean propels him on the international scene, starting with Lawrence of Arabia, in 1962. This film relates the life of the British Army lieutenant T. E. Lawrence, who played an important part in federating several tribes of Arabia leading to the creation of the Arab National Council and furthermore of an independent nation. The main theme falls within Orientalism, playing with Maghrebian sororities, as well as with adventurous and jolly notes. It first occurs in a sequence showing the sun rising on the dunes and the Mehari camels plodding from afar in the sand. The rhythm goes with the laborious expeditions that punctuate the whole film while complimenting the magnificent and impressive wide shots of the sceneries. But more subtly, it also goes together with Lawrence’s ambition, confidence and progressive passion for Arabia. That is why it regularly comes back in the first part of the film, while the second part is more warlike-oriented and silent.

Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean (1962)

Doctor Zhivago follows this epic and heroic path. Released in 1965, it consists in an adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s eponymous Russian novel from 1957, which deploys a complex plot in the context of the fall of tsarism, the October Revolution and World War One. Youri is a young doctor and poet married to his cousin Tonia, but who falls in love with Lara during his requisition, the wife of an important Bolshevik general, Strelnikov. The main theme goes with Youri’s fate: we can mainly hear balalaika, reminding us of his dead mother who was a virtuoso player. The music often comes back in the most troubling moments, indicating Youri’s subjectivity to the audience. In this case, it indicates hope but also the “merry-go-round of life”, to quote Joe Hisaishi’s famous piece. Also, the theme is often linked to a sensual experience: touch, when he sweeps out dust from his desk, in his abandoned childhood house or when he observes the wind through the daffodils and the birch trees. This way Lean chose to portray his protagonist through the recurrences of his theme is obviously linked to his existence as a doctor and a poet, which implies a dichotomy between physical and intangible experiences.

Doctor Zhivago, David Lean (1965)

There is an interesting musical sequence where Youri is walking in the forest and sees the sun shining red through the trunks. He follows it with confidence and suddenly arrives near a railway. A red train is standing still right in front of him. Of course, it is a Bolshevik train, belonging to the Red Army. The recurrence of red and round patterns and the transition show how Youri is irremediably led to is destiny.

Doctor Zhivago, David Lean (1965)

The last film I would like to write about is Ryan’s Daughter, from 1970. Inspired by Flaubert's Madame Bovary, it transposes the plot to the little village of Dingle, South East Ireland, during World War One. The opening of the film is, in regard to the music, striking. We discover two major characters in Rosie’s destiny: Michael, a disabled and dumb man who is in love with her, and Father Collins, her confidant. Michael has a special theme, which goes with his limp - a particular scene creates, through music, a mirror between him and the British officer Randolph, Rosie's lover. Later, we grasp Rosie’s theme as blending her longing for elsewhere and passion. It can mostly be heard at the beginning of the film when she is going to meet Charles Shaughnessy, the man she is courting. However, Rosie’s romantic hopes, nourished by her readings, are wiped out, by her passionless wedding with Shaughnessy.

Magnified by Jarre's scores, the beauty of the film partly resides in its depiction of individualist yearnings mistreated by collective history and of the Irish littoral environment, both wild and majestic. Thus, numerous scenes take place on the beach, one of the plot's most decisive spots. It can almost be seen as a character itself. Shaughnessy discovers Rosie's footprints, pointing out she came all the way to welcome him. Then, alone, she walks in his footprints, showing the height difference and so her desire to be with this man she sees as a protective figure. Much later in the film, Shaughnessy notices two pairs of footprints while walking on the beach, which he literally imagines are Rosie's and Randolph's.

Ryan's Daughter, David Lean (1970)

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A subjective collection of film score composers (2/4): Wendy Carlos, an electronic music pioneer in cinema

Less led by film preferences for this one - even though the first two have had a huge impact on my cinephilia, it is much more with a desire to highlight invisibilized minorities that I chose to present Wendy Carlos. Nevertheless, this choice was not made randomly. Actually, I think her little incursion into cinema is utterly interesting as it is entirely linked to the musical identity she was famous for. Because she was chosen for her music's uniqueness, her soundtracks are now cult.

Born Walter, Carlos was early in her life attracted to music and above all to crafting objects such as computers and other electronic devices. She studied physics and music at the universities of Brown and Columbia. Afterwards, she assisted Leonard Bernstein in 1965 and met Robert Moog in 1968, with whom she worked on the development of the modular synthesizer.

Released this same year, her debut album Switched-On Bach sold more than a million copies and became the second classical album to go platinum. She won several Grammys in 1970. It consisted of pieces of Johann Sebastian Bach played with a Moog synthesizer. This use of synthesizer can announce bands such as Electric Light Orchestra, which combined electronic and classical sounds.

Coming out in 1979, Wendy Carlos is one of the first public personalities to disclose her physical transition and to assume her transgender identity.

She started to composed for cinema with A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess’ novel adaptation from 1971, directed by Stanley Kubrick. The film deals with Alex DeLarge, the leader of a gang who participates in “ultra” violent activities. During one of their operations, Alex is arrested and condemned to fourteen years in prison. Two years later, he volunteers for the experimentation of Ludovico technique, which consists in aversion therapy. The films of sex and violence he is forced to watch are accompanied by an electronic version of the 9th Symphony, by Alex’s favorite composer, Beethoven. His brutal revulsion confirms the effectiveness of the treatment.

A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick (1971)

Of course, the well-known opening shot effectively sets the pace, as the camera does a reverse travelling, from the face of the protagonist staring at the audience to the whole extremely bizarre set up. And on the top of all, we experience an electronic version of Henry Purcell’s March for the Funeral of Queen Mary.

This work is fascinating in the sense that it is atemporal. Each piece of music identified as from the past is futurised by the synthesizer. The world depicted in the film is also in this breach. The way violence manifests seems unreal, as well as Alex’s destiny. Still, the whole scenery is really anchor in the known reality of the era. In between anticipation and satire, the film is crossed by Alex passion for classical music. That is why the fact that Alex is disgusted by the electronic version of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony seems to suggest it’s rather grotesque than avant-garde.

After that, she collaborated for a second time with Kubrick on Shining, which is also an adaptation; here from Stephen King’s horrific novel. Nevertheless, on the global soundtrack she proposed to the director, he only kept one score. Indeed, the film opens on Carlos’ memorable reinterpretation of Berlioz’s “Dies Irae” segment of his Fantastical Symphony. Actually, it seems to encapsulate the essence of the film: as the little car progresses through the Going-to-the-Sun Road, Montana, the music accompanied by some curious sounds foreshadows the haunting of the vast Overlook Hotel.

Nonetheless, their artistic disagreement put an end to their work together.

The Shining, Stanley Kubrick (1980)

Her last work was on Tron, directed by Steven Lisberg, produced by Walt Disney Company and released in 1982. Her composition for this one is really interesting: most of the film takes place in the ENCOM mainframe cyberspace, but some scenes are in a realistic setting. Therefore, the orchestration is differentiated, by the addition of the synthesizer for the virtual world. Indeed, she didn’t wanted to propose uniquely electronic music, which led to a collaboration of digital synthesizers with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Thus, the music tend to calm the rather innovative aspect of the visual, creating the ideal balance for the audience.

Tron, Steven Lisberg (1982)

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A subjective collection of film score composers (1/4): Pino Donaggio's Italian lyrism

This article is the first of four dealing with film music composers. It will be a personal cinema journey through composers I love, with the desire to introduce you to their work and also the films they composed for. Each time I will first deal with a short biography of the composer and then I will propose some focus on films and collaborations with directors.

So, for the opening I wanted to write about Pino Donaggio.

Born in Burano, in Italy, he started a career as a singer-songwriter after classical studies and is mainly known for "Io che non vivo (senza te)". Traduced "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" it was sung by Dusty Springfield and Elvis Presley. I started to compose for cinema with Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, which took place in Venice, where he is from. His work renders accurately Venice's magnificence aura but also its atmosphere in winter, foggy and labyrinthine (as opposed to David Lean's showing of Venice in Summertime). But more than anything, it plays a part in inscribing the film in the Giallo genre, which designates a type of film, mostly Italian, mixing thriller, horror and eroticism in their plots.

Don't Look Now, Nicolas Roeg (1973)

I discovered him through his collaboration with Brian De Palma on two films: Carrie and Blow Out.

Released in 1976, Carrie adapts to the screen Stephen King's eponymous first novel from 1974. It comes with Carrie White, a teen who is a scapegoat at her high school. A day after a gym class, she discovers she is bleeding: her mother, a religious extremist, never told her about it. She is mocked by her classmates, who humiliate her violently. From then, a series of events follows, Carrie slowly discovering she has telekinesis powers. But De Palma's treatment of King's novel is rather more focused on Carrie's tragedy of existence than horror. Therefore Pino Donaggio's theme for the opening credits - which is also Carrie's theme, is delicate and smooth, as the camera goes through a cloakroom in slow motion. The prom scene is the very climax of the film. The music "Bucket of Blood" accompanies the suspense, a very Hitchcockian notion: the spectator sees the bucket on a joist and Carrie's joy, waiting for the moment it will be reversed. The scene image is in slow motion until what had to happen happens. This deed triggers Carrie's anger and her telekinetic powers: through a split screen, we see her eyes controlling the shutting of doors and opening of the fire hoses. Inspired by Bernard Hermann's work for Hitchcock, each action is underlined by a similar use of strings as in Psycho.

Carrie, Brian de Palma (1976)

After Carrie, Donaggio collaborated with De Palma on Pulsions, Blow Out and Body Double. Blow Out, released in 1981, is in between two films marked by a new aspect in De Palma's cinematography: eroticism. It tells the story of Jack, a sound technician who, while recording sound effects in a park, witnesses an accident which, through his recording, might be an assassination. Like most of De Palma's films from the eighties, there is a strong referential. Here, it is mostly a tribute to the film Blow Up, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni in 1966. Indeed, it is almost the same plot, except that the protagonist is a photographer (among other differences). Blow Out is both a drama and a thriller, and the themes composed by Donaggio render these two tenses. The main theme resumes strings and piano to create a gentle soundtrack, suggesting Jack’s love for Sally.

Blow Out, Brian de Palma (1981)

Thus we can say it is an interesting collaboration, since Donaggio, through its music, really complements De Palma’s mannerist and formalist cinematography as well as self-reflective and transtextual way of making films at that time, referring to his compositions but also Bernard Herrman’s soundtracks.

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