{"id":597149,"date":"2023-01-13T07:54:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T13:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/13\/steven-spielberg-and-john-williams-reflect-on-50-year-collaboration-williams-walks-back-retirement-plans\/"},"modified":"2023-01-13T07:54:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T13:54:00","slug":"steven-spielberg-and-john-williams-reflect-on-50-year-collaboration-williams-walks-back-retirement-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/13\/steven-spielberg-and-john-williams-reflect-on-50-year-collaboration-williams-walks-back-retirement-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Spielberg and John Williams Reflect on 50-Year Collaboration, Williams Walks Back Retirement\u00a0Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n\tGrown adults were grinning like awestruck children as the legendary filmmaker\u00a0Steven Spielberg\u00a0and composer\u00a0John Williams\u00a0discussed their unparalleled 50-year collaboration during an\u00a0American Cinematheque\u00a0celebration of the duo at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills on Thursday night (Jan. 12) \u2014\u00a0and that was\u00a0before<\/em>\u00a0Williams, 90, thrilled the crowd, and surprised Spielberg, by rescinding his prior declaration that he would retire from film scoring after his latest project with Spielberg,\u00a0The Fabelmans<\/em>\u00a0and then one more\u00a0Indiana Jones<\/em>\u00a0film.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cSteven is a lot of things,\u201d Williams said in response to a question from veteran music journalist\u00a0Jon Burlingame\u00a0about packing it in. \u201cHe\u2019s a director, he\u2019s a producer, he\u2019s a studio head, he\u2019s a writer, he\u2019s a philanthropist, he\u2019s an educator. One thing he\u00a0isn\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0is a man you can say \u2018no\u2019 to.\u201d After an eruption of applause from the audience, Williams noted that he knew Spielberg\u2019s late father, Arnold, who worked at Spielberg\u2019s Shoah Foundation until he was 100. \u201cSo I\u2019ve got 10 more years to go. I\u2019ll stick around for a while!\u201d He added, \u201cAlso, you can\u2019t \u2018retire\u2019 from music. It\u2019s like breathing. It\u2019s your life. It\u2019s my life. A day without music is a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpielberg, who was visibly taken aback at Williams\u2019 change of plans, cracked, \u201cI\u2019d better get to work to find out what the hell I\u2019m doing next!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBetween carefully curated clips from some of the 29 films they have teamed up for, Spielberg and Williams discussed how they met (a Universal executive suggested that Spielberg, a young director in need of a composer, and Williams, an up-and-coming composer, meet for lunch), how they work together (Williams rarely accepts Spielberg\u2019s offer to read a script prior to production, opting instead to wait until it\u2019s done, at which point, Spielberg says,\u00a0\u201cJohn sees the movie, then we sit down the next day, and we just start discussing where there should or should not be music\u201d) and they spoke about the role that music plays in the movies<\/a>, generally,\u00a0and in their movies, specifically.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMusic is probably older than language,\u201d Williams asserted. \u201cIt is a very important thing in all of us \u2014 when we\u2019re grieving, when we\u2019re happy. We don\u2019t know why. It\u2019s unknowable.\u201d As for how he determines if a film scene does or does not require musical accompaniment? \u201cIn the end, the\u00a0film<\/em>\u00a0tells\u00a0us<\/em>, if we pay attention enough. It\u2019s mainly intuitive.\u201d Spielberg paid tribute Williams\u2019 contributions by stating, \u201cI tell a story, and then John retells the story musically.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpielberg was aware of Williams\u2019 work before they met, having worn out his copy of the vinyl soundtrack for\u00a0The Reivers<\/em>, a 1969 film that Williams had scored. When they first sat down together, Spielberg \u2014 a student of film history and film music whose late mother, Leah, was a classical pianist \u2014 \u201cseemed to know more about film music than I did,\u201d Williams realized, so Williams agreed to work with him on\u00a0Sugarland Express<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\n\tThey began on that film in 1972 \u2014 it was released in 1974, and then a year later came\u00a0Jaws<\/em>, the first of their truly immortal collaborations. Of Williams\u2019 simple but haunting score for that thriller, Spielberg admitted to Williams, \u201cI was scared when you first played it for me on the piano. I didn\u2019t know you that well. I thought you were pulling my leg.\u201d But Williams had hit on something: \u201cYou could play it very softly or very quickly, or soft or loud, so you could kind of manipulate an audience,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\n\tMusic was a central part of the plot of 1977\u2019s\u00a0Close Encounters of the Third Kind<\/em>, with its five-note signature tune \u2014 arrived at after 100 permutations were considered\u00a0\u2014 representing a means of communication between humans and aliens. Discussing 1981\u2019s\u00a0Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/em>\u00a0and 1982\u2019s\u00a0E.T.<\/em>, with their iconic themes, Williams said to Spielberg, \u201cYou and I have always been talking about tempo on films,\u201d observing that the addition of music can make four minutes of screen time feel like two.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth men faced two massive challenges in 1993:\u00a0Jurassic Park<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Schindler\u2019s List<\/em>. Spielberg marveled that Williams had scored the former without the dinosaurs having already been added via visual effects, and yet still captured musically the childlike sense of wonder of the characters, who were, at least at that time, played by actors who were \u201clooking up at nothing.\u201d Williams scored\u00a0Jurassic Park<\/em>\u00a0while Spielberg began work on\u00a0Schindler\u2019s<\/em>, marking one of the few times that the filmmaker wasn\u2019t present for a Williams scoring session. <\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the role that music would play in\u00a0Schindler\u2019s<\/em>? \u201cI really didn\u2019t have a plan,\u201d Spielberg admits. When he finally showed a cut of the film to Williams, Williams was so moved that he was unable to speak for several minutes. \u201cThen,\u201d Williams recounted, \u201cI said, \u2018Steven, you need a better composer than I to score this film.\u2019 And he said, \u2018I know, but they\u2019re all dead.\u2019\u201d Williams\u2019 violin-centric score ended up being one of his masterpieces, as the film is one of Spielberg\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\n\tSometimes, the duo explained, less is actually more when it comes to music in films. They said they never even considered incorporating music into the famous opening sequence of 1998\u2019s\u00a0Saving Private Ryan<\/em>, but decided to employ the trumpet and low strings to stir emotion in later scenes, most famously in the hushed and reverential choral finale. \u201cMusically, it honors all of the veterans, both today and yesterday,\u201d Spielberg said of Williams\u2019 composition for that film, \u201cand it\u2019s why the military is always asking if they can play this score.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe jazzy main title sequence of 2002\u2019s\u00a0Catch Me If You Can<\/em>\u00a0took Williams back to his roots as a jazz pianist in the 1950s, and Spielberg\u2019s as a jazz aficionado who hung out at jazz clubs while a student at Long Beach State in the 1960s. The recording of Williams\u2019 score for 2012\u2019s\u00a0Lincoln<\/em>, which was inspired by 19th century American music, with trumpets at the fore, moved Spielberg and Williams \u2014 both students of history\u00a0\u2014 to tears. But for Spielberg, who lost both of his parents in recent years, and for Williams, who had known both of them,\u00a0The Fabelmans<\/em>\u00a0was an undertaking unlike any other.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor me,\u201d Spielberg professed, \u201cit was the most private and personal experience of my whole career.\u201d Speaking on what would have been Spielberg\u2019s mother\u2019s 103rd birthday, Williams said of his score \u2014\u00a0which has already been nominated for Golden Globe and Critics Choice\u00a0awards\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\u201cI hope it is worthy of them,\u201d to which Spielberg quickly responded, \u201cOh, it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked to sum up their half-century of making movie magic together, Williams said of Spielberg, \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed his company and the pleasure and the gift of his inspiration. Can a muse be a man? He\u2019s certainly been a muse for me.\u201d Spielberg, for his part, said that working with Williams \u2014\u00a0\u201cJohnny,\u201d as he calls him \u2014 had been like a ideal marriage. \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever had a disagreement,\u201d he volunteered, before adding with a chuckle, \u201cI mean, what am I going to do? Sit down and write the music myself?\u201d And, he added, prompting Williams to choke up, \u201cIn the art form that we\u2019ve both chosen, he has been the most steadfast brother and collaborator that I\u2019ve ever had in my life. And that\u2019s how I would sum up how much I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Gil Kaufman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grown adults were grinning like awestruck children as the legendary filmmaker\u00a0Steven Spielberg\u00a0and composer\u00a0John Williams\u00a0discussed their unparalleled 50-year collaboration during an\u00a0American Cinematheque\u00a0celebration of the duo at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills on Thursday night (Jan. 12) \u2014\u00a0and that was\u00a0before\u00a0Williams, 90, thrilled the crowd, and surprised Spielberg, by rescinding his prior declaration that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":597150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[534,2415,1061],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-597149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-financial","category-steven","category-williams"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}