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Cleopatra on DVD
• New Digital Audio • 3 Disc Set More DVD info... |
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Cleopatra on DVD
• New Digital Audio • 3 Disc Set More DVD info... |
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The original LP of Cleopatra was an enormous success for Alex North. The album spent many week's in the nation's top selling charts, and, along with Spartacus as few years earlier, established North as the premiere composer for modern epic films. Several re-recordings of the film's two main themes, many of which by pianists or string groups, turned up as elevator music in the years following. Even with all this attention from the fans, not to mention a dear love from members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, North's score failed to win the Oscar that year. In fact, with North's plentitude of Academy Award nominations over his career, he would never win the award (though he did, in 1986, become the first composer to receive a lifetime achievement award from AMPAS). The score for Cleopatra had been produced in proportion to the film, allowing North the luxury of composing for and recording with an orchestra of unprecedented size. By luck for North, his score for Spartacus in 1960 had dealt with almost the same exact era of the Roman Republic/Empire (and even included some overlapping character references). So people who had become fans of Spartacus heard North resurrect half a dozen motifs and percussive elements from that score for use in Cleopatra. It was a practical move which suited both the composer and the film. North would end up writing almost three hours of music for Cleopatra, a stunning amount of material even by today's standards. North's music for the film was very typical of his swing towards "modernism" in film music that would influence composers of the Silver Age of film scoring (especially Jerry Goldsmith). A "typical" North score for this genre, of course, would have its spirit rooted in the exotic use of percussion. From 1960's television documentaries such as Africa to cult sci-fi films of the 1980's such as Dragonslayer, North would maintain a proud status as the master of percussive personality. Whenever possible, North would inject his scores with the performances of rarely known percussive instruments. At the same time, modern fans of film music --those who grew up in the John Williams age of valiant melodies and themes-- find North's more obscure methods of presenting themes to be disorienting. The most interesting aspect of his Cleopatra score is its combination of classical Hollywood romance and modern percussive experimentation. The exotic location, period, and sets of the film are balanced by an undeniable pair of love stories (which were enhanced, of course, by the off-screen behavior of its stars), and some film music scholars have described the Cleopatra score as having a tense, raw sexuality about it. This is an interesting observation, because this lust in the music is the direct result of the bridging of the Golden Age Hollywood romance themes with the more edgy, unconventional, Silver Age period of Hollywood. As the suicide scenes at the end of the film reach their climax, North hauls off with some of the best thematic material of his entire career. There is a debate about which of the two love themes of the film is better, though it seems that opinions sway favorably towards "Antony and Cleopatra" in the second half of the film over "Caesar and Cleopatra" from the first. Even with the romance of the film agonizingly played out by the strings of the orchestra, Cleopatra is still not a score that will be easily accessible to the soundtrack collectors of the Digital Age. If you want to seek an epic score from the same period that provides more blatant thematic material, then Maurice Jarre's 1962 Lawrence of Arabia is a better buy. But Alex North has a very healthy following of fans, even in the Digital Age. After the original LP Record disappeared from the stores, North's score for Cleopatra was largely unknown to new film score collectors up to and after his death. Then, in the late 1990's, a limited edition (and what some would call bootleg) of the score would be issued by the Tsunami label in Germany. The Varèse Sarabande label is mistakenly advertising the 2001 remastering as the first ever release of the music on CD; the Tsunami limited edition of the score has sold relatively well on the market for years. Unfortunately, Tsunami albums suffer from poor sound quality and their Cleopatra release was limited to 2222 numbered copies. To its credit, it did offer several cues that had been previously unavailable on the LP at the time, making for a total of over 74 minutes of North's music on CD. The limited album also featured a uniquely designed jewel case, with the logo and other artwork actually painted onto the exterior of the front plastic. An intact and undamaged jewel case of this product is actually considered a collector's item by some of North's fans. In any case, the Tsunami release is rendered completely moot by the 2001 remastered edition of Cleopatra by Varèse Sarabande. For the 2001 album, the process of digging up the original masters of Cleopatra's music and arranging them into listenable cues was an incredible task. Even if you are no fan of the music, the impressive level of effort put into the care of this score is worth your time. When North recorded Cleopatra, the composition was so complex that he had several different tapes of the guitars, strings, percussion, brass, etc, all made separately for final mixing at the end of the process. Much of the restoration required the careful piecing together of these raw elements using digital technologies, and, except for two or three wobbles (i.e. slowing of tapes, causing the pitch of the music to become distorted), the sound quality is impressive. North's score is highlighted by its intimate string performances, guiding the two main themes for the two couples, and these moments particularly sound good. More challenging are the fanfares, battles, and the overture and entr'acte, which sometimes reveal the age of their masters beyond digital correction. The mere quantity of music provided --two fully packed CDs-- is more than enough compensation for these minor flaws, however. The packaging of the Varèse Sarabande album is superb, with more information from Jeff Bond about the movie, score, and upcoming documentary about Cleopatra than you could ever need. Indeed, this film and score are a story in and of themselves, and this kind of labor-intensive treatment for both is spectacular. Even if you're not an enthusiast of North's unconventional, percussive styles, the scope of this score and album warrant your interest.
The 1997 Tsunami Album: *** The 2001 Varèse Sarabande Album: *****
The 2001 expanded release includes lengthy notes about the film, score, and documentary to accompany the DVD set. The following press statement was released by Varèse Sarabande in March 2001:
Coming in April from Twentieth Century Fox is a deluxe three DVD set presenting a painstaking restoration of this enormous production. Newly produced for this set is a lavish two-hour documentary telling the turbulent story of the production of one of Hollywood's most infamous and expensive (nearly $400 million when adjusted for inflation) motion pictures. This documentary will also air repeatedly on AMC as part of a tremendous promotional push by the studio. Cleopatra is one of the studio's grandest productions and this DVD will be the ultimate presentation of the spectacular epic. Equally historic is this first ever presentation of over 150 minutes of Alex North's glorious and Academy Award-nominated film score. The composer's own score for Spartacus and Miklos Rozsa's magnificent Ben Hur are perhaps this score's only peers. Recorded with an orchestra of unprecedented size, it is truly one of the most extraordinary scores ever composed for a film. Cleopatra has never before been available on CD. An LP of recorded highlights of North's music spent some six months on the charts and was the country's number 2 album for three weeks. Now, for the first time ever, the complete original soundtrack from the film, digitally re-mastered and sounding better than ever, is presented on this elaborately packaged double CD. Cleopatra opened June 12, 1963. The film was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. Also receiving Oscar nominations for their work on the film were Rex Harrison (Best Actor) and Alex North (Best Score). Cleopatra was additionally nominated for Best Film Editing and Best Sound and took home Oscars for Cinematography, Art Direction - Set Decoration, Costume Design and Special Effects. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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