I have some thoughts on the greatness of the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, whose work is getting highlighted in a welcome and innovative retrospective at Film Forum, for The Daily Notebook. "The Takemitsu Treatment" is here.
Toru, Toru, Toru
You May Also Like
Apes-ma
Apes-ma
I'll admit that I got Planet of the Apes much more than I got 2001:…
Glenn KennyAugust 4, 2011
Image of the day, 4/11/14
Image of the day, 4/11/14
Robert Montgomery in They Were Expendable, John Ford, 1945. Writing of the movie's lukewarm critical…
Glenn KennyApril 11, 2014
“I’m your friend…you’re wiser than I…”
“I’m your friend…you’re wiser than I…”
Sorry for the light posting. Been busy with some other projects, other gigs, and whatnot.…
Glenn KennyOctober 9, 2009
Nice to see a composer getting some recognition, both here and at the Film Forum. I cherish Takemitsu’s avant-garde score for Woman in the Dunes, an outstanding example of the way modernist music can be imaginatively applied to film scoring. Takemitsu’s score illustrates just how far composers were moving away from the Romantic idiom that dominated film scoring through the ’50s.
Mat
Only problem is, that HYMN TO A TIRED MAN screening was today (Dec. 4), not tomorrow (Dec. 5). Why the FF is only running it once is mysterious. It’s not like the print was in bad shape.
I thought of the MIDNIGHT COWBOY score too, but wasn’t that kind of folksy-harmonica-applied-to-non-folksy-subject matter score briefly in vogue in the late 60s? Maybe Takemitsu picked up on it in some other American flick, although I can’t think what it might have been, off-hand. It does sound very western but maybe Takemitsu was actually avant la lettre on that one.
Charlotte Zwerkin’s splendid Takemitsu doc, available on DVD, the Smithsonian Channel occasionally shows Dream Window: Reflections on the Japanese Garden, which he scored and in which he discusses the influence of nature on his music.