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| Delerue |
Rich and Famous: (Georges Delerue) Known primarily
for being the final film in the long and illustrious career of director
George Cukor,
Rich and Famous was exactly the kind of
woman-centered topic for which he was best remembered. His task in the
1981 movie was to make expressive actresses out of leads Jacqueline
Bisset and Candice Bergen, who star as two writers who are lifelong
friends. One is rich while the other is famous, and each envying
something about the other, testing their affection as their personal
lives and careers head in different directions only to come crashing
together again. Not even Cukor was quite prepared to handle the subjects
of sexuality explored by the script, the film containing several
extremely brazen discussions about racy behavior and love affairs that
were finally acceptable to address by the 1980's. While respected for
some of these interactions, as well as the women's liberation that
prevails at the end,
Rich and Famous suffered too inconsistent a
script and acting performances to yield positive responses, dooming the
film to financial losses as well. Despite his semi-retirement after the
collapse of the old studio system, Cukor had collaborated with some of
the biggest names in the film scoring world in his later years,
including John Barry and Jerry Goldsmith. For his final movie, however,
he teamed with Georges Delerue, who was still getting established in Los
Angeles after moving from France not long before and was already
experiencing more international success due to that transition into
Hollywood. His contribution to
Rich and Famous is brief and
joined by a few songs in the film. While rather short on substance, the
score is admired for its alluring main theme that became a staple of his
re-recordings in suite form a decade later. Rather than amplify the
rather difficult, at times edgy subject matter of the story, Delerue
keeps the score's demeanor tender, extending the light drama to address
the movie's comedic sidetracks as well. His clarinet playfulness for the
airy passages isn't all that bright, but it's sufficient. The ensemble
is dominated by strings and woodwinds per usual for the composer, with
piano solos and flowing harp also highly recognizable staples for his
recordings. Warm clarinet and flute emphasis is vital to both the
romantic and comedy portions. With very little dissonance in the
soundscape, a few moments of altercation are treated too lightly. The
flowingly romantic, even dainty personality likely intentionally softens
the lead women rather than punctuate their conflicts.
The overall listening experience of
Rich and
Famous is effortless but therefore lacks much gravity for the
personalities on screen. The work's flow is dominated by a pair of
themes, though one dominant primary identity occupies much of the
running time. Secondary melodies branch off in the later cues as the
women explore naughty sexual encounters, and other singular fragments of
ideas meander in and out of the score at random intervals. The
aforementioned main theme is awash with prototypical Delerue drama and
offers several different sections for a very long overall identity. It
debuts in the film at 0:24 into "Main Title" on strings and then
woodwinds over pulses of harp. Slowed for flute in "You Owe Me One" and
elongated by strings later, the quieter renditions follow that same
approach with more somber shades in "You're OK." Later manipulated to
push it towards the secondary romance material in "Taxi/I Lied/Teddy
Bear/Liz," the theme is barely intact by the solo woodwinds of "Crying
Liz." But the score's friendliness is rediscovered for the story's
reconciliation in the conclusive "Something Strange About You." An
alternate version of this cue offers strings in the lead, but the final
recording defined by piano is far superior. The full ensemble expands
upon the opening titles performance in "End Credits" at length. Two
renditions of this extended suite of finale and credits music offer
similar variations, a wild version not set to the picture slowing the
tempo appreciably, especially on the piano in the finale sequence up
front. The composer's secondary themes represent the leads' affairs in
the story's second half, hinted in prior cues but flourishing in
"Goodnight/Chris/Making Love" in pretty form. This attractive suite of
late cues struggles to maintain that identity as the love triangle
fizzles, however. The only one, true stylistic deviation in the score is
the source-like "String Quartet," and this sound takes a more serious
dramatic posture more aligned with the rest of the score in "Eighteen."
Ultimately,
Rich and Famous is a very pleasant but somewhat
vacuous score. The mix of its original recording is a little muted and
disappointing, and "Something Strange About You (Alternate)" and other
cues have some minor sound distortions. This circumstance leaves
Delerue's London Sessions recording of a five-minute reordering of the
finale and end credits cues as the best representation of the score,
which otherwise was only available on a limited 2011 Film Score Monthly
product alongside the unrelated 1972 score for
One is a Lonely
Number by Michel Legrand. You can't help but love this Delerue
theme, but it will save the otherwise mundane score for only his devout
collectors.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Georges Delerue reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.89
(in 10 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.35
(in 2,542 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes notes about the score and film.
