{"id":3970,"date":"2014-09-27T09:09:33","date_gmt":"2014-09-27T09:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=3970"},"modified":"2014-10-03T12:16:35","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T12:16:35","slug":"when-hans-zimmer-worried-about-a-gladiators-kiss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=3970","title":{"rendered":"When Hans Zimmer worried about a gladiator\u2019s kiss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Universal<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

Hans Zimmer will relax tonight at the Krakow Film Music Festival where a live orchestra will play his and Lisa Gerrard\u2019s score at a screening of \u201cGladiator\u201d but I recall a winter\u2019s day in London almost 15 years ago when the celebrated film composer was not so relaxed.<\/p>\n

He was worried about a kiss.<\/p>\n

The Oscar-winning composer (\u201cThe Lion King\u201d) had written a cue for cellist Tony Pleeth to play under the love scene in which Russell Crowe kisses Connie Nielsen. At the recording in Air Lyndhurst Studios, part of the Air-Edel group, Zimmer watched from the control booth as Pleeth tried first one and then another octave for a crucial love scene. Director Ridley Scott puffed quietly on a slim cigar just behind him.<\/p>\n

\"Hans<\/a>Pleeth finished the cue, which was to accompany an already recorded track featuring orchestra and chorus, and Zimmer shouted his approval while Scott smiled and nodded his head.<\/p>\n

Later, Zimmer told me, \u201cIn our film, the hero loses his wife and son, and so it seems inappropriate that there\u2019s a long romantic kiss with another woman not that far down the road. I always had the ambition to write a really beautiful love theme, and it would be so beautiful that you wouldn\u2019t have to show the kiss.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only problem was that Scott had shot the kiss and everybody on the picture had seen the kiss: \u201cOnce I put the beautiful love theme with it, all the girls started crying. Especially my assistant Mo. When we took it, out everybody went nuts at us, so we put it back. I think it was peer pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Zimmer\u2019s third score for Scott following \u201cBlack Rain\u201d and \u201cThelma & Louise\u201d, and the director told me he likes to use Zimmer because his music is idiosyncratic: \u201cYou always find you get something different. I have music in mind when I\u2019m shooting and even when I\u2019m editing. I have transitions in mind as well. I\u2019m usually looking for something off-centre or not quite predictable. That\u2019s why I\u2019m attracted to people like Hans Zimmer or Vangelis (\u2018Blade Runner\u2019). You never quite know what they\u2019re going to come up with. They always surprise you. Hans is very secure and will say, \u2018Sure, fine, show me the temp score, yeah, that\u2019s good, that works\u2019, but he will still come back with his own identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Universal<\/a>Zimmer wrote \u201cGladiator\u201d in collaboration with singer Lisa Gerrard, whose voice is heard in the film but who is unable to be in Krakow for tonight\u2019s concert due to illness. The composer told me: \u201cI think Lisa is the secret amazing element in this movie. The first time I heard her voice I didn\u2019t think anybody could sing like that. I didn\u2019t know anybody had a voice like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The score falls into several different categories, sometimes with a huge orchestral score, which then frames very intimate bits with Gerrard: \u201cSome of it we worked on together. Some of it, all I was doing was holding down one note and she would come up with amazing things. Sometimes it was Lisa driving where we were going, and sometimes it was me driving where we were going.\u201d<\/p>\n

They worked together, with Scott and editor Pietro Scalia, at Media Ventures, Zimmer\u2019s studio in Los Angeles, Zimmer said: \u201cIt was an odd way to work. I had this crazy idea that we should all be working in the same building, so the cutting rooms were in my studio, which was great. It would literally be, \u2018Ridley, come on over, let\u2019s do something right now. Let\u2019s just make it up on the spot. You tell us if you like where we\u2019re going.\u2019 A lot of the best vocals Lisa did were after Ridley had been smoking thousands of cigars and it\u2019s 2 o’clock in the morning and her voice should be completely gone. The dangerous side of everything in this film really helped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGladiator\u201d, which is available on Blu-ray from Universal, went on to win five Oscars including best picture and best actor for Crowe. Zimmer and Gerrard were nominated, and while they did not win at the Academy Awards, they won for best score at the Golden Globes.<\/p>\n

Ludwig Wicki will conduct the Sinfonietta Cracovia and Pro Musica Mundi Choir at tonight\u2019s performance in Krakow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett Hans Zimmer will relax tonight at the Krakow Film Music Festival where a live orchestra will play his and Lisa Gerrard\u2019s score at a screening of \u201cGladiator\u201d but I recall a winter\u2019s day in London almost 15 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,1694,8,9],"tags":[2161,2164,2165,2166,1275,4171,2162,2163,1838],"class_list":["post-3970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-interviews","category-krakow-film-music-festival","category-music","category-news","tag-gladiator","tag-air-lyndhurst","tag-ar-edel","tag-connie-nielsen","tag-hans-zimmer","tag-krakow-film-music-festival","tag-lisa-gerrard","tag-ridley-scott","tag-russell-crowe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3970"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4029,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970\/revisions\/4029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}