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Oscar Watch: Hans Zimmer Talks Inception Score

by Anne Thompson | October 10, 2010 | 1 Comment

Thompson on Hollywood
Christopher Nolan's Inception, which has crossed the $800-million mark worldwide, certainly will be one of this year's ten best picture Oscar nominees. Warner Bros. will bring the movie back into the public eye when it promos the DVD release in early December. One key contributor to the film's success is composer Hans Zimmer, who has been consistently strong of late (Sherlock Holmes marked his seventh Oscar nomination; he won for The Lion King). Released on iTunes July 9, the Inception soundtrack was a top ten bestseller.

Many folks take Zimmer for granted as a big-studio mainstream composer, but the German musician is worth a closer listen. Last year he took me on a tour of his sprawling Santa Monica recording studio, which is home to other musicians and collaborators. Even though Zimmer was a tad more pressured for time, we recently sat down again for a flip cam chat (below) about his layered, lush Inception score. The music helps to pull the viewer through the movie's maze, providing signposts of meaning.

We talked, among other things, about Zimmer's slowed-down use of the Edith Piaf's "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" and his anxiety attack before a rare act of public bravado when he and guitarist Johnny Marr performed live with a 26-piece orchestra at the Inception premiere after-party. "It became more and more of an electronic score," he says. "Just like Chris was inventing the world, I was inventing the sounds for it...We needed to offset the intellectual conceits with an emotional throughline."

Part One: Anxious about the live concert, coming up with surprises for the DVD, working on James Brooks' How Do You Know.

Part Two: The technology of slowing down the Edith Piaf song.



Part Three: Translating the electronic score into an orchestral one; on being compared to Bernard Herrmann and described as "minimalist."

Part Four: Oscar eligibility issues.

The slowed down Je Ne Regrette Rien:

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More: Awards, Franchises, Genres, Video, Production , Oscars, Inception, Action, Interviews, Sound and Score

1 Comment

  • Mike | October 16, 2010Reply

    inception may get a nomination, but i think it will be solely done so as not to upset the fanboys and/or oscar telecast ratings. the only certainty is that it won't win best picture. it was a very good movie but its only october and none of the studio's oscar contenders have even come out yet....

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