Zimmer's score for Hannibal

[Gabriel Girard]

I really really like the haunting piano stuff in Hannibal. Since I know that Zimmer's fond of quoting other composers I was wondering if there was perhaps a classical piece that might have been the foundation for that melody. Thanks!

[cdouglas]

I really like that score (and the movie keeps drawing me back in, too - it has quite a few problems but I feel compelled to revisit it every year or two). I mean, I know he uses that one Bach piece ("Aria da Capo") and draws a bit of inspiration from that, but other than that I haven't noticed any obvious influences. Anyway, your comments give me the opportunity to mention two things of interest:

1. If you listen to that Bach selection very carefully (with headphones, preferably), you can faintly hear someone humming or singing along to the melody in the background. It somehow makes that piece feel a little more ominous.

2. Hans Zimmer himself counts the score as a personal favorite, and said the following upon the film's release: "This is the best love theme I've ever written. I keep telling everyone this is a romantic comedy, but nobody believes me."

No offense to Marc Streitenfeld, but I do wish Zimmer and Scott were still working together. They were a terrific match.

[Gabriel Girard]

I have yet to listen to the Hannibal score outside of the movie and outside the selction you featured on the show. It's both simple and effective, bringing in a touch of haunting melancholy that makes a nice undercurrent to the movie. I think it's on of the main things that helps the grotesquery on display to be more serious than funny. The movie really balances that line well for the most part.

It might be my favorite of their collaborations outside of Black Rain

[cdouglas]

Gotcha. Yeah, that score really does add a lot of weight to the movie - it goes a long way towards making the climax something strangely touching rather than a silly piece of overheated melodrama. There's a good deal of interesting material on the album, though unfortunately several cues are littered with assorted monologues from Hopkins (I'm generally not a fan of dialogue from the movie being included on soundtrack albums, but I realize many like that sort of thing).

[Gabriel Girard]

Gotcha. Yeah, that score really does add a lot of weight to the movie - it goes a long way towards making the climax something strangely touching rather than a silly piece of overheated melodrama. There's a good deal of interesting material on the album, though unfortunately several cues are littered with assorted monologues from Hopkins (I'm generally not a fan of dialogue from the movie being included on soundtrack albums, but I realize many like that sort of thing).

Are you saying the dialogue is mixed in with the music and not separate like on Pulp Fiction's soundtrack?

[Steve T Power]

Gotcha. Yeah, that score really does add a lot of weight to the movie - it goes a long way towards making the climax something strangely touching rather than a silly piece of overheated melodrama. There's a good deal of interesting material on the album, though unfortunately several cues are littered with assorted monologues from Hopkins (I'm generally not a fan of dialogue from the movie being included on soundtrack albums, but I realize many like that sort of thing).

Are you saying the dialogue is mixed in with the music and not separate like on Pulp Fiction's soundtrack?

Yep - and it blows... Ruins an otherwise beautiful score...

[cdouglas]

Gotcha. Yeah, that score really does add a lot of weight to the movie - it goes a long way towards making the climax something strangely touching rather than a silly piece of overheated melodrama. There's a good deal of interesting material on the album, though unfortunately several cues are littered with assorted monologues from Hopkins (I'm generally not a fan of dialogue from the movie being included on soundtrack albums, but I realize many like that sort of thing).

Are you saying the dialogue is mixed in with the music and not separate like on Pulp Fiction's soundtrack?

Yep - and it blows... Ruins an otherwise beautiful score...

What Steve said. I don't mind it so much when dialogue is presented as it is on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack (or on most Tarantino soundtracks, for that matter), but in this case its just thrown right on top of some very compelling pieces of original score.

[Gabriel Girard]

That's too bad. I'm still adding it to the ''buy'' list though.