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The Best Music in Film
Arthur Hiller
(Silver Streak, Love Story)
- S&S: What is your favourite film soundtrack music and why do you like it so much?
- "I've been overwhelmed by so many great scores that I just can't pick one or even ten favourites."
- S&S: In what ways does music best enhance a film?
- "Music enhances a film by joining the other creative juices helping, indeed sometimes making the audience not only see the film but feel the film with their emotions. I'm always indebted to my composers and to the other creative juices that pour into the pot,"
- S&S: What is the most effective sequence of music in your own films?
- "There are innumerable effective music sequences in films that I've directed but the one I'll mention was a sequence that wasn't in the script. When we were filming Love Story (1970) in Boston we bumped into the worst snow storm in twenty years. We shot a couple of sequences we could get away with and then there was nothing we could do. The producers decided to call a halt for the day but I insisted on continuing and made up all the playing in the snow montage...all done with the operator at my side with a hand held camera just listening to my directions to the actors and filming “ad lib.” It worked well, but it reached its emotional strength when Francis Lai added wonderful music to the scene. The music lifted their love for each other and their love for life to such wonderful heights. I cried when I first heard it and as I think back, the film just wouldn't have been as moving and worked so well, with different music or with no music. It made you love them and feel their love for each other so much, that you were devastated when later you learned the wife is dying young. Music enhances a film by joining the other creative juices helping, indeed sometimes making the audience not only see the film but feel the film with their emotions. I'm always indebted to my composers and to the other creative juices that pour into the pot, are mixed together and out comes this new entity....a film. I've been overwhelmed by so many great scores that I just can't pick one or even ten favourites. I hope this is of some help for what sounds like a terrific “special issue.”"