How happy do you think Richard Eyre (director), Scott Rudin (producer), the cast and the rest of the NOAS crew are right now? BEST ACTRESSJudi DenchBEST SUPPORTING ACTRESSCate BlanchettBEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAYPatrick MarberBEST ORIGINAL SCOREPhilip Glass My guess = pretty darn happy.
I thought the music was fantastic and evocative. As a matter of fact, although I really like Glass's music, I hadn't even been thinking about it until I read the comments here - so I obviously did not find it obtrusive at all. I remember thinking it was entirely effective.
I attended a live performance by the Philipp Glass ensemble of the music from Koyaanisqatsi (sp?) fairly recently. The film was shown while the musicians performed in front of it. But I remember being more involved in the film - with the music as accompaniment - than I was in the actual performance of the music. Since most of the instruments were electronic keyboards, this is unsuprising - there wasn't much to actually watch apart from the film. But the effect in Notes on a Scandal was the same. The pulsing rise and fall of Glass's score was a perfect compliment to the emotional rise and fall of the film.
My only caveats about the film were that it relied too much on Judi Dench's voiceover for my taste. Even with the medium of a diary, I find this technique obstrusive and artificial (imagine what whould happen to Catcher in the Rye if it were filmed this way). I also found a couple of the characterizations a little contrived - especially that of the young lad. Too subtle in his duplicity to be a convincing 15-year-old (and I'm a highschool teacher myself). This would have been fine if the film's poin-of-view had been consistently that of the Judi Dench character, but it was not.
I'm going on and on and will now stop, except to say I loved the film and its 'moral darkness'!. My wife and I talked about it for two days after seeing it.
I saw NOAS last night. There were six people (including us) in the theater at a 9:20 Saturday night show, within 45 minutes of Manhattan. So sad! But I took that as a good sign, that we would LOVE it. And we did!
To me, the score perfectly matched the emotional peaks in the film. I sit through the credits and I was pleased to see that there were only 2 or 3 other songs credited. They must have been playing in the background at "The Pub".
The point about overwhelming the dialog is well-taken. But in this case I think it had more to do with the very pronounced and unusual accent of Master Connolly, and the frequent British idioms requiring a double-take to understand. E.g. (mumbled) "Have you gone off me?" meaning "Are you breaking up with me?" I figured it out upon second usage.
Nothing I despise more at a movie than the "Intermezzo" when the surely-to-be-nominated song, rarely having anything whatsoever to do with the movie, consumes two minutes of screen time as the lovers stroll the beach or roll in the sack or the helicopter flies over Metropolis. I usually start making out with my wife during that inevitable interlude, admittedly more an act of protest than of love. But we both giggle about it as we turn doe-eyed and our lips meet.
To it's credit, my loss, and my wifes relief, this film had no Intermezzo!
excuse me, people. let's inject a bit of reality here: philip glass is the most over-rated rich composer of our time. his greatness lies in his ability to fool the general public into thinking his music has something to say. in that regard, he's as "great" as andrew lloyd webber.
It IS very easy to criticize. It is much harder to innovate. Philip Glass is the "beat poet" for our century's generations. He has as much to say as you are willing to hear. Try really hearing! (PS-It requires neurons that are connected)
I would like to add this to the music controversy.
When sitting at a movie, and one as intense as this, I expect to hear all the dialouge.
Further, I had the feeling that I was, at the same time,
seeing a movie and "hearing" a concert....I don't believe that's the reason to go to a MOVIE.
As good as the score was (is), it was to obvious.
Wonderfully played characters! A joy to watch them share the screen together! OSCAR!
the score was intrusive and heavy handed, there were wonderfully humerous moments in the film, but score droned on...
The music score adds to the intensity and drama of the film - try watching with no music!
I don't know this score sounds a lot like some of his others.
Like he phoned it in. Pretty generic stuff.
The score for "Notes" is considerably different from other Glass film scores. Plus, he only had three months of time to write and work on the score. An incredible achievement! Why give the Oscar to composers who always copy Glass's techniques (Desplat just for one) when you can give it to the real thing?
Philip Glass DESERVES this award!!
He should have won for "Kundun" and for "The Hours" ("Freida"--give me a break) & been nominated for at least half a dozen others.
Let's be fair. Philip Glass is beyond a doubt the greatest composer of the last half century, bar none.
PHILIP GLASS!!!