There are some real treats for lovers of classic cinema at the Watershed throughout June with a celebration of the work of composer Bernard Herrmann and screenings of many of the films that he scored, films that also just happen to be cinematic classics.
As if that’s not enough of a treat, a new digital print of Apocalypse Now is showing at the Watershed until June 9. I watched Francis Ford Coppolla’s masterpiece last night and it is a stunning piece of work on the big screen with surround sound.
The first film in the Herrmann season is tomorrow’s The Trouble With Harry, the first time that Herrmann worked with Alfred Hitchcock in one of the director’s lesser-known films, a black comedy about a dead man who won’t stay buried.
More well-known is Citizen Kane (June 5), the debut feature film of both Herrmann and Orson Welles, and regularly voted the greatest film ever made. Many of the scenes were tailored to match Herrmann’s music.
The crop duster scene (below) from North by Northwest (June 8 ) is one of those images that many people will know without even seeing the film, which sees Bristol’s own Cary Grant pursued by spies in a terrible case of mistaken identity.
Jason and the Argonauts (June 11) is a perennial children’s favourite whose special effects were revolutionary when it was made in 1963. A music workshop will be held after the film where you can create a marching score for Jason and his team.
Pioneering sci-fi adventure The Day the Earth Stood Still (June 12) is being shown as a Sunday brunch. Herrmann’s use of theramins set the standard for sci-fi music to this day. Hear a demonstration before the film.
“Herrmann’s most haunting, evocative and romantic score” according to those in the know at the Watershed is for Vertigo (June 15), a Hitchcock classic about a man hired to watch the strange behaviour of his friend’s wife.
The Man Who Knew Too Much (June 18) is Hitchcock’s 1956 remake of his own 1934 film, which he called the work of “a talented amateur”. James Stewart and Doris Day star as a couple who are witness to a political murder.
On Dangerous Ground (June 19) follows a violent city cop sent to snowy upstate New York to lead the hunt got a child killer and to cool off after a particularly brutal attack on a suspect. Listen out for the score to the climactic chase scenes.
It was only when Hermann’s score was written that Psycho (June 22) became a film rather than the one-hour television drama that Hitchcock envisaged. The stabbing thrust of strings in the shower has gone down in cinema history.
When Martin Scorsese wanted a composer to score Taxi Driver (June 24-30), Herrmann was his only choice. This is Herrmann’s last score; after the final recording session he returned to his hotel and died in his sleep.
Cape Fear (June 26) stars Robert Mitchum as Max Cady, a criminal who is released from prison intent on revenge against the man who put him there. When Martin Scorsese remade this film, he kept Herrmann’s score intact.
The final film in the Herrmann season is the Francois Truffaut classic, Fahrenheit 451 (June 29). Truffaut explained why Herrmann was chosen over his usual composers: “They’ll give me music of the 20th century, but you’ll give me music of the 21st.”
For more information on all of these films and more special events, visit www.watershed.co.uk/herrmann.
