Arthouse

Historical Contexts

Arthouse films are often discussed as having appeared in the post–World War II era, but this is a frequently disputed fact as such films have a considerable history dating back to the beginning of filmmaking with sound.

One of the earliest films considered by many to be arthouse is Le Ballet Mécanique (1924), a collaboration between Cubist painter Fernand Léger and American filmmaker Dudley Murphy, with [Page 87]additional cinematography by Man Ray. Given the original avant-garde music score by George Antheil, it is often regarded as the first “music video.” Antheil, an American composer, pianist, and inventor living in Paris and a self-proclaimed “bad boy of music,” composed the score for 16 synchronized player pianos, two pianists, seven percussionists, seven electric bells, three airplane propellers, and a siren. With its industrial and mechanical instrumentation and compositional complexity (630 time-signature changes in 1,240 measures), Le Ballet Mécanique was a soundscape likely never before heard. Because of artistic disagreements, not the least of which being that Antheil's score was 30 minutes long for Léger's 16-minute film, and monumental technical challenges, the score actually was not heard at all at its premiere screening.

Antheil's score called for music technology that did not yet exist. Seventy-six years later, thanks to forward-thinking music publishers and technologists and a contemporary player-piano manufacturer, the film and score of Le Ballet Mécanique were finally screened together as Antheil intended at the 2000 Cultuurmarkt van Vlaanderen in Antwerp, Belgium.

Nationalistic Elements

The soundtracks of arthouse films are extremely varied because of the great diversity of the types of films that fit into this broad, yet elite category. Because arthouse is also known as cultural cinema, it represents high culture and thematically focuses on nationalist characteristics and modes of expression.

Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) represents a type of arthouse film with strong national characteristics both in film content and its musical accompaniment. Japanese artist Fumio Hayasaka composed the soundtrack comprising 39 tracks of original music. The strong national character is enhanced by the instrumental soundtrack music, but Western harmony, instrumentation, and form are used as opposed to traditional Japanese instruments, song forms, or tuning.

Incorporation of Western Art Music

Western art music, more commonly known as classical music, and popular music are used in arthouse films to enhance narratives, flavor instrumental compositions, draw out particular themes and motifs of the narratives, and work directly with auteurs' visions. Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) serves as a standout model for how music enhances an arthouse film. Kubrick envisioned the film to be a predominately nonverbal experience, allowing music and image to evoke moods rather than tell a particular narrative. To achieve this, Kubrick used key classical works such as Johann Strauss's Blue Danube waltz, Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, Aram Khachaturian's Gayane'sAdagio, and excerpts from four works by the contemporary Hungarian composer György Ligeti: Atmosphères, the second “Kyrie” movement from Requiem, Lux Aeterna, and an electronically altered interpretation of Aventures. Ligeti's reaction to the use of his compositions in Kubrick's film was mixed; while he approved of the film, he was displeased that Kubrick did not seek his permission to use his music and that his works were among what he viewed as hackneyed music of Johann and Richard Strauss. In addition to these well-known Strauss works, Kubrick incorporated the popular song “Daisy Bell” in the film, but created a speech-synthesized version with musical accompaniment.

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