Director Michel Hazanavicius has definitely paid an homage to Bernard Herrmann in his academy award nominated movie “the Artist”. He uses Herrmann’s main theme from the beautiful score to Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” in the crux of his own movie. The actress Kim Novak (who starred in the Hitchcock movie 50 years ago) had some pretty serious qualms with the theme being taken saying, “This film could and should have been able to stand on its own without depending upon Bernard Herrmann’s score from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to provide it more drama.” To which Michel Hazanavicius replied: “The Artist was made as a love letter to cinema, and grew out of my (and all of my cast and crew’s) admiration and respect for movies throughout history. It was inspired by the work of Hitchcock, Lang, Ford, Lubitsch, Murnau and Wilder. I love Bernard Herrmann and his music has been used in many different films and I’m very pleased to have it in mine. I respect Kim Novak greatly and I’m sorry to hear she disagrees.” In any case, here is a selection of the famous theme on 3 pianos by The 5 Browns (arrangement by Pat Russ).
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