Fennesz/Sylvian Soundtrack to Shirley-Visions of Reality

[banyan]

Hi

Posted by davidsylvian.net

Music by Christian Fennesz and David Sylvian is used as the soundtrack of the Austrian
movie Shirley - Visions Of Reality.

Christian Fennesz made a larger contribution than David to this soundtrack and they did
write one song for the film which eventually became I Should not Dare.
Two other previously released Sylvian tracks were licenced for the soundtrack - Small Metal Gods
and The Department of Dead Letters.

More info:
http://www.davidsylvian.net/the-news/it ... movie.html

Banyan

[Quiet Visitor]

Any idea if this movie will be released on DVD? Would be a wonderful present.
http://www.gustavdeutsch.net/index.php/ ... ality.html

[Quiet Visitor]

Here's a 15 minutes Making Of, which starts with David right away. And there's also a catalogue-book, which looks very interesting.

[Quiet Visitor]

(...) And there's also a catalogue-book, which looks very interesting.

Just received that catalogue. Beautiful done, complete with interviews and an overview from both the exhibition- and the film-credits. From the latter David is mentiontioned together with Christian Fennesz for Original Music. Fennesz is credited for the soundtrack-extracts used during the exhibition, together with Christoph Amann.

[Quiet Visitor]

In the catalogue mentioned above is an interview with director Gustav Deutsch. Here's an excerpt which shines some light on the way the music was used in the film:

Thomas Edlinger: The musis is by the instrumentalist Christian Fennesz and his musical part-time partner, the art pop singer David Sylvian. It comes from off-camera and is the aesthetic signature of the present. Is its purpose to intrude and prevent Shirley simply being enjoyed as Hopper nostalgia?

Gustav Deutsch: Already when we were making the Film ist. series, our aim had been to use music to take the images out of their time. The music serves as a bridge to the present, as an attempt to migrate the images out of their time and thus prevent them being observed merely nostalgically. In Shirley, there are on the one hand the atmospheres and noises that were researched as exactly as possible, that originate from the time and place of the painting in question, including music from the radio or a record. At the same time, sounds were created by Christian Fennesz and David Sylvian in the here and now. Christian took the atmospheres and noises as the starting point for his treatmens in order to emphasise the psychology of the characters and the mood between them. Whenever the protagonist leaves the room, Fennesz fills it with his atmospheric music. In addition, David Sylvian conducts a dialogue with the scenarios from the present. In one song, he interprets a poem by Emily Dickinson, Edward Hopper's favourite author.

One will notice that Shirley holds a book with poems by Emily Dickinson in her hands in one scene.

[Quiet Visitor]

Last week I saw the movie in the wonderful EYE-museum in Amsterdam. Great experience. I must say the music with David fits perfectly in the scenes in which they are used. But the rest of the soundtrack is very effective too, especially because of the surround sounds.

[Quiet Visitor]

I've been waiting for a DVD-release of this film, but I can only find a French, Spanish and Japanese version.

[svendutchmountains]

Lost track of this... didn`t even realise it was out on DVD (even if it is in French).
Just ordered it from Amazon.de. Should be here in 3 days! Looking forwards to watching this!
Thanks for the posting!

Greetings from the Dutch mountains,
Sven

[Quiet Visitor]

I'm waiting a bit longer especially now the original German version will be released in August. This one also has a 5.1 surround mix, although that's also the case with the French version. I wonder what is on the second disk from the latter edition.

[svendutchmountains]

I received the French DVD earlier this week... Have not been able to watch it yet. Hope to watch it in the next few days.

The back of the box mentions:

Langues: Anglais, Francais (so it looks like there is a choice of language) Sous-titres: Francais.

With regards to the bonus DVD (cleverly titled "Les Bonus") the cover mentions:
- Interview du realisator (18:00)
- Entretiens avec des spécialistes de Hopper (21:23)
- Galerie Photos
- Affiches
- Bande Annonce

So - interview with the maker, discussions with Hopper specialists/connaisseurs, photo gallery, posters and movie trailer...

[Quiet Visitor]

Thanks for this ^ ^ information!

[svendutchmountains]

Finally had some time to watch the DVD. It is great experience. It is wonderful how they have been able to capture the "painting" effect. As someone said previously the juxtaposition of the flow of the film and the Sylvian/Fennesz tracks work wonderfully together. The shot of the main character holding the Emily Dickinson book is at the very start.

Department of Dead Letters is the first song, coming at about 20 minutes into the movie. "I should not dare" is listed in the credits as "I should not dare to leave my friends" and comes in the middle of the movie. Small Metal Gods is the song playing as the final credits roll.