For four years, Classic FM’s program Saturday Night at the Movies has explored the pairing of director and composer, looking at the ‘seamless dynamic between what’s heard and what’s seen on the screen, enhancing the audience’s experience by building their emotional connection to the story.’
Jennifer Nelson, executive producer for Classic FM, produces that weekly film music program, and having conducted many interviews featuring directors and composers, is perfectly suited to profiling the dozen pairs examined in the book of the same name.
Though ostensibly a series of essays or articles, each of which looks at well-known pairings like Steven Spielberg and John Williams or Tim Burton and Danny Elfman, as well as lesser-knowns such as the Coen brothers and Carter Burwell, Saturday Night at the Movies also traces that larger idea of how a connection between director and composer can overall enhance the movie-going experience.
Nelson’s writing style is engaging and entertaining, and while the reader may sweat to themselves that they’re just going to read one chapter more before setting the book down, it’s the rare person who will be able to resist the desire to look into only one pairing more. While never breezy, the author writes each of her features as if looking at two longtime friends, instead of a transactional relationship, because in many cases, that’s quite true, complete with snits and fights.
Even pairings one thinks they know quite well, like Bernard Herrmann’s work with Alfred Hitchcock, reveal interesting tidbits most fans aren’t necessarily aware of, such as the fact that Herrmann was evidently fired because he kept writing cues for scenes Hitchcock wanted scoreless – such as in Psycho.
Especially nice is the way Nelson will offer up sidebars in some chapters examining composer’s work with other directors, looking at how those relationships were similar or different, as in the case of James Cameron and James Horner, wherein the author details Horner’s equally-strong work with director Ron Howard. It’s a minor thing, but it definitely allows the reader to get a fuller idea of a composer’s talents.
Saturday Night at the Movies functions as criticism as well as history, with Nelson offering up recommended tracks from each score, along with a brief description of what makes them work so well, as she goes along. They’re all collected at the end of each section, too, allowing the reader to be able to assemble a greatest hits playlist to accompany each chapter, should they be inclined, or to dip into unfamiliar scores without having to hear the whole thing. It’s a wonderful feature.
Jennifer Nelson’s book might not be for hardcore film score nerds, who have likely read or heard many of the interviews the author uses to assemble her book, but casual fans who want to know more, or even those who like a good story about partnerships, this is a fun, delightful read that will have them cueing up track after track to listen to their favorite pieces in a new light.
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES / AUTHOR: JENNIFER NELSON / PUBLISHER: ELLIOTT & THOMPSON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
