Jeunet must have realized instantly what a perfect match it was. It is said that director Jean-Pierre Jeunet was considering The Piano composer Michael Nyman until he heard a production assistant pop in one of Tiersen’s albums. When Amelie is so overwhelmed with love of life that she has to sweep through the streets describing every detail to the blind man the score sweeps us up right along with her. Like that musical, Amélie touches a place of pure, undiluted joy that few movies come within miles of. Scan the list of the all-time highest grossers and see how few lack a tune you can hum off the top of your head.Īll this is a roundabout way of saying that I believe a huge portion of the credit for Amelie’s status as one of the most beloved films of the past decade belongs to the swirling calliope music of composer Yann Tiersen.Īmélie is one of those films like Singin’ in the Rain that its devotees love out of all proportion. I don’t think it’s stretching to suggest Rocky might be just another underdog tale, well liked in its day but half-remembered now, were it not for the aural adrenaline that is Bill Conti’s fanfare. I would go so far as to say that in some cases the achievement of the composer outweighs that of the director. The Graduate is arguably one of the closest approaches to flawlessness in film history but would the genius of Mike Nichols be so readily apparent were it not for the contributions of Simon and Garfunkel? Would the image of Holly Golightly remain so iconic were it not inextricably wedded to the strains of "Moon River"? They stamp a film’s identity on the public consciousness like nothing else can. That said, I’ve never read a tribute to it, and it’s my column, right?Ī memorable theme, an original song, a perfectly applied pop song. I went back and forth as to whether it was stretching to label this achievement “unsung” since I know many people who adore it. from Serious Film returning for a new season of Unsung Heroes and right off the bat I’m going to cheat a little.
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