fabulafr

Hello, i'm member of a non-commercial fan website about filmmusic composer Hans Zimmer and other composers of his studio Mediaventures. Opened for about 4 years, we are now trying to publish all our texts in english (our audience is mostly english-speaking : 40000 people a month now!) and we are experimenting problems with lots of people helping us translating our pages(friends essentially). As we are still in search of translators, i've found your fourms and hope i can still find someone who can help me. So to see if it works well, i give you an english text i wrote on my own to know if the spelling is correct. If so, maybe i will try next time with a french text (i cannot translate my own french as my style is too difficult for me to transpose in english). If someone is interested to help us, don't hesitate. Thanks. Fabrice. Here is the adress to have a look : ww.hans-zimmer.com

Here is the text.

Vintage and Classical Zimmer



Close to Christmas, it’s time to have a look at Hans Zimmer 2004 works and show how the german-born composer could handle various projects at the same time despite the rise of new composers to the top of the list. Even if 2003 ended up with his 100th score (The Last Samurai), people could have thought of a well-deserved slow-down pace for a composer now on board for more than twenty years. But the facts show that Hans Zimmer was not ready to take holidays on quiet place like paradise islands. Hollywood is still its best area to compose score, but this time in the vein of what he already had done before.



Hearing the four movie score he done this year - King Arthur – Shark Tale – Thunderbirds – Laura Stern, it is clear that this year cannot be described as a new All of his filmmusic mark the influence of scores he composed years before. The King Arthur modern and intentional approach for exemple feels like if he had transposed Crimson Tide and Peacemaker music to Middle-ages area to revesit the arthurian scene. King Arthur is a well-known exemple of what Zimmer’s vision can produce. Clash or enthousiasm. Nothing new to this point and thing won’t change for sure. But what matter now is not if Zimmer will gain fans or loose ones but rather if he will able to change his style to match the cred of the movie. To this point, 2004 cannot be choosen as a year of achievement. In opposition to the 1989-93 the 2000 period begins with a look in the miror of Zimmer vintage years and « Influence » can be 2004 main theme. Zimmer’s personal affection for classical composers has to be appreciated in King Arthur as his sense of style-quotation can be heard in Thunderbirds. With Ramin Djwadi on board with him, the remake of British TV serie Thunderbirds led Zimmer with a childish movie aimed to attract kids, not fans of the puppet area. Like a Spy Kids movie, Thunderbirds music is yet referenced to Jerry Goldsmith/John Debney bumbastic compositions that made the genre so thrilling to hear. Goldsmith last life composition Looney Tunes Back in Action sum up his own style-influence for kids-movie music and Zimmer tried his best to implement his score with Goldsmith music-style. A kind of reference from a composer to a master of the domain despite his known aversion of Mediaventures studio compositions. By the way, speaking of Zimmer’s work, Thunderbirds energic composition points out without irony Zimmer’s own style build in the 90’s. Synthetics loop reinforced surrounding loud-orchestra find their origins in movie like Broken Arrow, Pacific Heights or Peacemaker.



But one can notice that giving a more important role to the synth part instead of pushing forward the orchestra turns out to be Zimmer-style that cannot be suitable to all partos of the industry. For exemple, the mix-mash pop-rock music choosen to be the emblem of the new Dreamworks fully-syntehetised animation cartoon Sharktale can be the real disappointment of the year. Even if the Box-office figures proves to be fully satisfying, the music and options choosen by the staff of writers and composers together must be pointed out as a mistake. Nothing more to hear than a mixing bad point of view trying to confront modern and jazz. The audience was not listening this time, as for Spirit-Stalion of Cimaron two years ago. Prince and Lions were sleeping, waiting for a well-deserving story like the german-tale Laura Stern. With Nick Glennie-Smith’s come back and Hening Lohner as co-composer, Hans Zimmer took his name to impose his mark on this cute drama shown in Germany one month ago. Surprising project for the german composer who produced the music to match the smooth classical story of a little girl like if he was doing his Toys come-out. More mature than the 1992 composition, his simple but efficient lullaby proves to be in the vein of the small themes composed years before for much more complex movies like Hannibal’s Love Theme or Beyond Rangoon lyrical one.



Even if the subject changes, influences are there to be revealed and noticed and there is in 2004 lots of them to be heard, from King Arthur loud-orchestra direction to the classical but fully distinctive voice of Laura Stern. So, 2004 cannot be taken for the greatest Zimmer’s year but this one reflects the quiet moments of composer looking in the miror of what he had done before pushing his desire to the new projects coming soon. Without Kingdom of Heaven (composed by Harry Gregons-Williams) marking a pause in the Zimmer-Scott relation but with Spanglish for James L. Brooks on its way on December, the official Batman Begins with composer James Newton-Howard and still unofficial The New World by Terence Malick, there is more to expect in the future. Hopes rise again.



Fabrice Roux