Image Credit: Laurie Sparham; Everett CollectionAs Bertie — er, King George VI — might say, I’m gobsmacked that Tom Hooper won this year’s top award from the Directors Guild of America over David Fincher. Hooper also won the award over Christopher Nolan. And also over Debra Granik, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Danny Boyle, Roman Polanski, and Ben Affleck. Don’t get me wrong, the director of The King’s Speech did a fine job assembling a sturdy, effective drama out of familiar, good-quality components. But by my lights, any one of those also-rans did more interesting, original, artful work than the colleague voted best in 2010 show by his colleagues.
What were those DGA voters thinking? My conclusion: They weren’t thinking; they were feeling. And they were feeling because of incalculable help provided to the director by two geniuses ineligible for an award in this or any other year to come. I’m talking, of course, about Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Without them, The King’s Speech would be filled with much emptier words.
I recently rewatched the movie to study the exact musical architecture involved in Alexandre Desplat’s discreetly hardworking score. So if/when you see it again, try to imagine what the drama would be like without Beethoven or Mozart stepping in to do heavy emotional lifting in these four crucial moments:
1. While gently rolling piano themes establish scenes of dailiness throughout the film, Mozart steps in to announce the initial unloosening of the royal speech student’s tongue: As Colin Firth/Bertie intones “To be or not to be” for a diagnostic recording (on a new-fangled machine “from America”), Geoffrey Rush/Lionel cranks up Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro on the turntable, louder and louder, to distract his client from thinking about his own speech. The grand opera has begun!
2. The men get to work — as equals, as per Logue’s rules. While they’re at it, Hooper strings together a sequence of quickfire scenes in which Bertie puts his royal best into exercises for breathing, strength, relaxation, etc. Mozart obliges again: That’s his Clarinet Concerto in A major we hear. Because, see, they’re working in concert!
3. Prince Albert, a/k/a the Duke of York, becomes King George VI. After which, nothing less than Beethoven will do. And so, although the movie’s scripted climax is the monarch’s address to his people after Great Britain declares war on Germany in 1939, the emotional climax is triggered by the awesome, sad solemnity of the second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major. What a combo: Majestic music composed by a musical titan who was losing his hearing, chosen to intensify the effect of words spoken by a monarch just coming into his voice. What we don’t see but only hear becomes the most important element in the whole scene. In triumph, the king emerges from his recording studio to receive the adulation of all. (A nagging question I’ve got for you about this stirring movie: Is one privileged fellow’s triumph over stuttering really that Beethoven-worthy an accomplishment while Great Britain was preparing for war?)
4. Still, bravo, good show and all that. The king, queen, and princesses proceed to wave to a cheering populace. Bertie nods to Lionel and Lionel nods to Bertie and we nod to Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush and all is well in the world of elocution. What better musical accompaniment is there, then, to lead us gently into the credits than the second movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major. It is, after all, known as the “Emperor Concerto.” That’s why we walk out feeling grand .
PS: Director Darren Aronofsky ought to share any Black Swan awards that come his way with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, don’t you think?
I’d basically agree. None of this is Hooper’s fault of course – he made a decent enough film that America went strangely crazy for.
Are EW writers in bed with certain films. Smells to me
Wow! Lisa Schwartzbaum really slammed this film. What is her agenda? The original music is beautiful. Why doesn’t she go after Zimmer’s Inception which is a copy of 100 other things or Resnor’s Social Network where he ripped himself off of his Ghost release. As a composer myself, I know what is original like Desplat’s King Speech score and others who don’t deserve to be in his company.
The use of that Beethoven piece completely took me out of the movie, and it was no fault of the film. Ever since Tarsem used that music so amazingly at the beginning of The Fall, that’s all I can think about every time I hear it.
the exact same thing with me.
Same here. I couldn’t completly enjoy that ending. I wish they’ve used an original piece of music
Nice to see that Ben Affleck was
nominated too in this catagory..
So now we have Harvey Weinstein doing it again.. the last time that
Colin and his teacher in the movie
were together was another movie that brough controversy SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE…WITH HARVEY
WEINSTEIN again …
What category was Affleck nominated in? Not best director for sure!
I am absolutely perplexed over the sudden rash of awards for The King’s Speech. It was a perfectly fine little movie with great acting. But Best Director? Best Movie? I’m hoping Academy voters come to their senses and put an end to this nonsense.
Totally agree. I also thought it was fine though I did lose it lose during “the speech” with Beethoven in the background. Nothing that screamed Best Picture though (But I did think the three lead performances were great.) When people ask whether to see it, I say “If you love Colin Firth, go see this movie.”
Music can make or break a show/movie for me.
Totally agree. I read an interview with James L. Brooks about ‘As Good As It Gets’, and he said that before they added in the quirky, whimsical music, test audiences hated Jack Nicholson’s character, but after they added the music in, people felt better about it.
Well, one could argue that the use of the music in ways pointed out here points to clever choices by a good director. I like reading stuff like this, it wouldn’t have occurred to me otherwise that those pieces were used in particular moments – nice to have Lisa’s classical-music-trained eye. But certainly, Hooper’s a sturdy director who didn’t do anything all that special or groundbreaking – perhaps he was awarded the prize as a sort of professional awarded by professionals for doing a professional job, if not an inspiring, artistic job (for which case, the award should go to – who? Aranofsky? Roman Polanski?)
Boy do I agree. A nice, professionally made movie but it’s just such a boring, predicatble choice for Best Picture and Hooper most certainly does not deserve Best Director.
“Is one privileged fellow’s triumph over stuttering really that Beethoven-worthy an accomplishment while Great Britain was preparing for war?” I say absolutely! It wasn’t just “one privileged fellow’s triumph over stuttering”; you have to look at the specific situation of the man to understand and appreciate what this accomplishment meant to him. His brother practically tortured him into being unable to speak. On top of that, Bertie didn’t want to be king at all. He wanted to have his life with his wife and children, but duty forced him into this role, and a great weight was placed on his shoulders. He even asked Lionel why it had to be his voice that the people heard because he had nothing to do with the decision to go to war – it was parliament’s decision. I’d say being able to overcome his fears to inspire and comfort his country as they are about to enter a war is a Beethoven-worthy accomplishment.
So many comments about “The King’s Speech” being a nice enough movie but not the caliber of other nominees. While I agree all this is very subjective I fail to see why it’s so important to people. You didn’t make any of the movies and have no vested interest other than as a spectator.
I’m constantly astounded that Lisa is a writer that is paid and has more than weekly columns online and in print!
Instead of pointing out and writing about the beautiful work of Alexandre Desplat and Clint Mansel for their scores for The King’s Speech and Black Swan, she had to start out the article with her “snarky” comments about who won at the Director’s Guild Awards. Why did the other directors deserve to win over Tom Hooper? Lisa simply states that he “did a fine job assembling a sturdy, effective drama out of familiar, good quality components.” Did she give any examples of this simply “mediocre” movie? Were there any examples of the more “interesting, original or artful” work of the other directors that she mentioned? Nope. Again and again, I’m reminded why I rarely read anything that has her name attached!
I agree… It’s far too snarky… If she’s not a fan of the movie it must suck, or be cheap or dumb… She sounds like most of the commenters on EW… Heaven forbid that the DGA use their feelings to pick Hooper as the best director of the year… How many movies has Lisa directed? The artful use of classical music is not a cheat or a crutch, it might in fact just be good movie making…
Absolutely!! Using a great composer and most likely having input about the score of the movie is an excellent example of great directing and being the helm of a pretty good film! So the rest of her article just totally negated what she states at the beginning!
Well, I guess I agree, but I think you could make the same argument about dozens and dozens of other films. Here’s a short list just off the top of my head. Try to imagine the following movies without their soundtrack doing heavy lifting: Pulp Fiction, Gone With the Wind, Forrest Gump, The Big Chill, Breakfast Club, LOTR movies, anything with a John Williams soundtrack, The Piano, much of the Merchant Ivory genre, much of the action/thriller/horror genre…help me out here, guys…
Oh and the whole war movie genre, too: Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, etc etc.
Yes, I was watching “Rocky” and realized that the fight montage and ending would be less effective without the musical score. Wow. What a revelation. If you strip away elements of the soundtrack, the drama may be effected. I guess, then, the other nominated films used no music in their sound design. Genius.
Is one privileged fellow’s triumph over stuttering really that Beethoven-worthy an accomplishment while Great Britain was preparing for war?
It is when that privileged fellow is the King. As Jackie noted, a reluctant king–so all the more qualified in my book to be a good one. In a time of war an nation wants to rally around its leaders–they wanted the King to lead, but were put off by his inability to communicate. Those around him were made even more sympathetic and proud to see him accomplish something great. Just the kind of man a nation needs to lead them: a King who’s worked to earn his subjects’ respect and trust. Beethonven’s quite appropriate!
If preexisiting music is doing the real work of the movie, then Black Swan should be eligible too!!!!
They should change it to Best Score and allow adapted scores, like adapted screenplays.
PS: Fincher deserves Director more than Hooper too!!! Fincher and Nolan were robbed!!!!!
I agree with the preexisting music! I am dissapointed with that whole catagory this season.
I so agree!! I was crushed when Dario Marianelli didn’t get a nomination for his use of music in The Soloist! The movie revolved around the music – it was so beautifully used throughout the movie!
A great film has a memorable score, even if it’s cribbed–which is what I assume you’re saying was lacking about The King’s Speech, an original score. So vote for something that’s original, not adapted–if that’s how it has to be. Or, keep the category ‘pure’ and don’t vote for anything. Or vote for Tchaikovsky. Or vote for Beethoven. Or better yet, write-in the candidate you think best exemplifies film scoring even if you’ve never seen a film before but still have to choose. Hurry, hurry…
Tom Hooper is a genius. He has been snubbed in the past as far as I’m concerned and I, for one, am ecstatic that his talent as a director is finally being recognized.
“He has been snubbed in the past.”
Crrect me if I’m wrong, but isn’t “The King’s Speech his first film? What else has he done that he has been snubbed for?