The D is Silent

In his latest film, Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino embarks on his own take of the spaghetti Western. Or is this a spaghetti Southern, or Southwestern, since it is set initially in Texas, then travels through the South from Mississippi to Tennessee, to South Carolina, only two years out from the start of the Civil War. No doubt the spaghetti Western as a genre influenced Tarantino's vision, but the interesting twist is that this Western takes place prior to the Civil War and focuses on Dr. King Schultz, a court-appointed bounty hunter (played remarkably by Christoph Waltz) who buys Django (played by Jamie Foxx), a slave who can recognize a trio of brothers Schultz seeks to hunt down. As with most of Tarantino's films, there is a glorification of violence in Django Unchained, yet the film also possess strong leading characters that find you drawn to the protagonists, and drawn, and reviled, by the antagonists. Additionally, the music used in the film brings up several topics.

The film opens with an original title song "Django" with lyrics by Franco Migliacci and Luis Bacalov, and music composed by Migliacci. This is a tradition in Western films dating back to High Noon (1952). Much of the music used Django Unchained is anachronistic for when it is set. The closest to being chronologically correct is "In the Sweet By and By" (1868) sung by Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) near the end of the film. The remainder of the popular music was a mix of genres spanning decades from the 1970s on. As in other Tarantino films, he resorts to pre-existing music rather than an original score, much like Kubrick did.

Classical music has its place in this film as well. In what precedes what will go down as probably the most hilarious KKK scene in film history, we see the KKK ride on horseback through the night as they raid the wagon of Dr. Schultz and Django in an isolated valley. During their gallop it would make sense, and be expected, to hear Richard Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries" from his opera,
Die Walküre (1857/76), because of its association with the KKK riding in at the end of The Birth of a Nation to reclaim the South from black control. But Tarantino takes us in a different direction by accompanying the KKK raid with the "Dies irae" from Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem (1874). This excerpt is known for its strong hammerstrokes and thunderous hits on a bass drum specially built to be wider and deeper than standard bass drums. The Dies irae text describes the Day of Wrath where souls are judged before God for eternal salvation or damnation. The music appropriately reflects the menacing KKK, but the textual connection can play double duty. Does the text refer to the KKK passing judgement on Dr. Schultz and Django for their trickery, or does it reflect the KKK riding into their own judgement made by Dr. Schultz through his trickery to ambush them in the valley? The Verdi initially had me associating the former until it was discovered that Schultz lured the KKK into the valley to attack them, and namely take out Big Daddy. In the newly-formed context, it is Schultz who has made the ultimate judgement upon the KKK.

The other two examples of classical music come as rare diegetic examples in a Tarantino film. Diegetic meaning the music is part of the world of the film, there is a source for the music, and the characters are aware of the music, and often interact with it. The first one comes when Dr. Schultz and Django arrive at Candie Land. As they enter the Big House of the plantation, a young girl is shown playing Giovanni Battista Martini's (1706-84) celebrated Gavotte on the violin. This coquettish display of musicianship by a young girl demonstrates a transplantation of European culture to the New World. Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a Francophile, but he does not speak they language, he only engages in its customs and culture. As Dr. Schultz is being led up the stairs to meet with Candie, he is informed of his Francophile ways, and his preference to be addressed as Monsieur Candie, and Schultz begins speaking French. He is then told that Candie does not speak the language, and if Schultz were to speak French to him, Candie will be embarrassed. Even though some manners of custom and culture are transplanted, they are not taken whole stock.

The other diegetic example of classical music comes after it has been arranged to purchase Django's wife (more about her shortly) from Candie. As Dr. Schultz and Django wait in the library, a lady performs an arrangement of Beethoven's Bagatelle no. 25 in A minor (WoO 59), better known as
Für Elise. As she plays this on the harp, we enter Schultz's mind as he has flashbacks to witnessing a slave being ripped apart by a pack of dogs. The music spurs these flashbacks to such a level that Schultz becomes aggravated and tells the harpist to stop playing. When she continues to play into the Strum und Drang section with several stressed diminished chords, Schultz physically stops her from playing Beethoven, calling out the composer by name. Here Tarantino engages in a film tradition by associating the music of Beethoven with violence. Some notable pairings of Beethoven and violence can be found in Psycho (1960), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Die Hard (1988), Immortal Beloved (1994), and Elephant (2003). Given his extensive knowledge of film, I believe Tarantino, and his music supervisor, were aware of this strong connection and consciously chose Beethoven for this particular moment. 

As for Django's wife, whom he travels far to rescue and reunite with her, there is a special musical connection with her. Her name Broomhilda is a bastardization of the Valkyrie, Brünnhilde, the heroine to the German national epic, and Wagner's Ring Cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. While on their travels, Dr. Schultz gets to know Django and about his wife. He learns that Broomhilda speaks German, and upon learning her name, he tells Django about the power and history behind her name. What takes Wagner 16-17 hours to do across four operas to tell, Schultz explains the tale of Der Ring des Nibelungen to Django in a concise nutshell. Schultz says that every German knows about Brünnhilde and the story of Der Ring des Nibelungen. He mentions Brünnhilde being the daughter of Wotan, the God of the gods. She disobeys him and he places her on a mountain surrounded by a circle of fire. Only a brave, fearless hero can penetrate the fire and win her love. This of course serves as a vehicle and metaphor of Django's plight to reunite with his wife.

Django Unchained provides much discussion about the music alone. Overall, I was very impressed with what Tarantino accomplished. There was a mix of new and old camera and cinematography methods, the cast was varied between established faces and older faces (Don Johnson and [even though it took me a while to recognize him] Tom Wopat). Some of the slavery scenes were difficult to sit through, and the N word was peppered throughout the film. Yet Tarantino manages to pull this off in great comedic ways at times where you  do not feel so guilty or uncomfortable laughing at it. Though there is quite a bit of stylized blood and violence (it is a Tarantino film after all), this ultimately is a happy, Western, (fairy tale).

The Beastie Knights

With the passing of Adam Yauch from The Beastie Boys, I have been revisiting the groups ouvre; yes, I went there. "Sabotage" is perhaps my favorite. But as I listened to it, something caught my attention. As I heard the opening guitar riff, which permeates throughout the song, and the "hammerstrokes" laid down by the drums, this sounded familiar with something else I have heard. The opening track to The Dark Knight soundtrack has a similar style to "Sabotage." I am not sure if "Sabotage" served as any kind of influence for Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, but the similarity is a bit striking. It is known that Christopher Nolan, the director of The Dark Knight, said that Heat served as an influence on the direction he took with The Dark Knight, and even had the entire cast and crew watch Heat in order to understand where he wanted to go with the project. It is interesting that the "Sabotage" music video features The Beastie Boys running around in an urban environment as law enforcement agents chasing down bad guys, essentially what happens in Heat and The Dark Knight. Here is a sample from "Sabotage" followed by the opening track to The Drak Knight score, "Why So Serious?"

Black Swan (2010)

The latest film by Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan, offers another psychological odyssey for his main character in which a return to his/her original state has little probability. In the case of Black Swan, it is the journey of Nina Sayers (played incredibly by Natalie Portman. The director of a ballet company based in New York City, Thomas Leroy (played fiendishly well by Vincent Cassels) is directing a new production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake where the same ballerina will perform the roles of the Odette (the white swan) and Odile (the black swan) instead of using separate dancers. Thus begins the journey of the frail and timid Nina Sayers. Leroy resorts to various measures to coax out the Black in Nina. The use of black and white costuming and set design and production aids brilliantly as the plot moves along; including a glimpse into a room at Leroy's apartment that is decorated in chromatic colors, with a Rorschach inkblot poster for good measure (a little psychological nod to the character and his motive).

Since the film centers around Tchaikovsky's ballet, naturally music plays a key and prominent role throughout the film. We open with Nina alone on stage with a bright white spotlight shining down on her. The music playing is that of the prelude to the ballet, and hence the prelude to her journey. If you are unfamiliar with the ballet, relax. Nina announces this after she wakes from her dream. Not only is the coordination of the music as it appears in the ballet correspond with the function of the film, but the action presented in this brief prelude offers a taste of imagery to come. The best visual component of the film for me was having the cameraman immersed in the dance scenes. And this was not executed using a Steadicam. The camera work is jostling and jerky, but its close proximity to the actors and dancers providers the viewer with a perspective rarely experienced in ballet.

The score by Clint Mansell, who has collaborated with Aronofsky on all of his major motion pictures, uses quotations and borrowings from the ballet to represent the isolation and psychological state of Nina. The isolation is accomplished through the use of a solo piano with brief borrowings from the ballet that either correspond with the swan depicted by Nina or through aligning the plot of the film with that of the ballet. Kudos go to the entire music production crew for using and editing the orchestral performance of the ballet to heighten the psychological journey. There are certain portions of Swan Lake that sound broodish, plaintive, and ominous on their own, but how and where they are incorporated into the film brought new life and energy to them. One scene i particular that was musically and visually striking came when Nina danced the Odile coda requiring the dancer to perform the celebrated 32 consecutive fouettés, as shown here:

At this point in the film, Nina transforms into the Black Swan in spectacular fashion.

Darren Aronofsky comes through with another great journey into a realm where delusion and reality are blurred, and the amazing process of getting there. A Best Director nod is well deserved. Natalie Portman will certainly receive nominations and wins for her performance. And I would like to see some accolades come Vincent Cassels way as well. I highly recommend Black Swan.

Weighing in on Bale

According to several of my friends, I supposedly have a man-crush on Christian Bale. I wouldn't call it a man-crush, I just think he is an amazing actor who choose very demanding roles and commits himself fully to the characters he plays. Though I would say that this statement does not necessarily apply to The Dark Knight where he was minimized, and in a post on my previous blog I stated my trepidation about him working with McG on Terminator Salvation. Other than these recent decisions, I believe he is able to complete connect a character to the viewer as view can. I am assuming eveyone has heard about his on-set rant at Director of Photography, Shane Hurlbut. Judging from Mr. Hurlbut's experience, Mr Bale may be correct in calling him out for his lack of experience on the set. Then again it may have been a long day on the set. I would post a complete version of Bale's rant on my blog, but I assume everyone has heard all of it or enough of it by now to get the idea. So, I know present some precedence to his rant, and one spoof.

First, the spoof. Here is Michael Cera adding some light-hearted humor to the situation.

Next is Billo, Bill O'Reilly, doing what he does best, rant, raving, andd flipping out over nothing.

The last example eerily parallels Bale's rant. This is Chris Berman, masterful commentator and reporter for Espn, ranting about his unprofessional staff while he is trying to do his job, present sports news. Note the comments about the unprofessionalism of people moving in the background and how distracting this is, the same complaint Bale launch against Hurlbut.