Composer Maurice Jarre Passes Away
Filed under: Music & Musicals, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Obits
The week starts with some unhappy news, as the AFP reports that Academy Award composor Maurice Jarre has passed away at the age of 84. He wrote music for over 150 films, and many of them for the great directors: John Frankenheimer, Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Luchino Visconti, David Lean, and Peter Weir.
In his long career, he was nominated for an Oscar nine times, and took home three. His three Oscar wins were for what are probably his most recognizable scores: Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and Passage to India. Doctor Zhivago will alwaos be one of my favorites, and despite that Lara's Theme has been much abused over the years (Roger Ebert calls it one of his least favorite pieces, and Jarre himself was annoyed at the overuse of it in the film), it's a score is just pure sweeping, tragic romance.
Here's a collection someone on YouTube put together of his "greatest hits", below the jump are two of my favorites. One is naturally Doctor Zhivago, but my favorite part is at 1:38.
Please feel free to link to some of your favorites in the comments, it'd be great to hear them.
* ETA As an astute commenter pointed out, he was not the composer for Danny Boyle's Sunshine, but the 1999 István Szabó film. I read his filmography too fast. My apologies.
* ETA Apparently, the quote was a hoax. Thanks for cheapening one man's death for a social media experiment, sir.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-30-2009 @ 4:48PM
step said...
Actually, he composed the music for the 1999 film Sunshine, about the Hungarian Jewish family. The score for Danny Boyle's Sunshine was composed by John Murphy and Underworld.
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3-30-2009 @ 7:49PM
DAVID F said...
I am saddened at the loss of such a legend. I grew up on his work on many Peter Weir films, my favorite being his score for "The Mosquito Coast". He leaves a compelling body of work and will be missed.
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3-31-2009 @ 12:32AM
William C said...
My day was deeply saddened by the news of the loss of such a prolific and tremendously talented artist who gave us such a variety of beautiful music. His scores not only supported a variety of films and films of enormously different genres, but stood alone as classics that you not only hummed on your way out of a movie theatre but in your heart you hoped would not be left off the soundtrack that you knew you would find yourself purchasing the next day at the closest music store. I am proud to own many of Mr. Jarre's soundtracks and know that I will purchase more in the future. Perhaps now, some of his best that were previously not available will be released. Sadder still that we must wait for his passing to hear his talent once more.
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3-31-2009 @ 1:20PM
Julie said...
This spring has seen the loss of some very talented people and I am saddened to see Mr. Jarre's name added to that list. As all movie lovers know, a film's score contributes greatly to the viewers experience, sometimes (for me at least) the music can be 1/2 the film. Jarre's work accompanies some of my all time favorite films. When those flickering images of favorite scenes come to mind, the music is often there as well, forever playing in my head. Goodbye Mr. Jarre and thank you for the music.
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5-10-2009 @ 10:41PM
A said...
Condolences to all for Mr. Jarre's passing. I would like to learn more about him. But I am now skeptical that anything in this article is factual. I'm also disappointed at the tone of the corrections made. Maurice Jarre deserved an article celebrating his accomplishments and written by a professional who checks his facts. In any case, Mr. Jarre is not diminished; but the author of this article is.
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5-10-2009 @ 10:46PM
Elisabeth said...
A, that is not a fair comment. Thousands of obits in print and online media ran the exact same quote from Mr. Jarre, which turned out to have been a hoax perpetuated by a student. We received numerous e-mails from phony e-mail addresses rudely mocking the fact that we (and countless others, including the Guardian) had run a quote. I have no problem running a correction, but I take issues with people who leave comments screaming "hoax" from phony e-mail addresses of "hoax@hoax.com" I suspect they were left by the individual who penned the quote.
Your disgust is justified, but it's unfair to direct it at me, but at the student who falsified Jarre's biography, and those who chose to inform us by false means.
5-10-2009 @ 11:11PM
A said...
The student, who was quite transparent about his motives and who sought to immediately correct the record, revealed a weakness in a reporting system that should have included fact checking. He did us all great favor in his clever and innocuous expose. But will article writers just blame hoaxers or will they propagate incorrect information? Who is going to protect us, the readers and who is ultimately responsible?
5-12-2009 @ 4:02PM
John said...
I agree with A. This is your fault Elisabeth and no one elses. More should be expected from you than a cut and paste from wikipedia.
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5-12-2009 @ 3:11PM
Elisabeth said...
I hope you were as diligent about e-mailing every print and online outlet about their failings -- only the Guardian and the Irish Times ever printed a retraction, most simply deleted the quote and pretended they had never posted it. I didn't do that.
By the time I wrote the piece, the A.P. was running with the quote. I assumed the A.P. had pulled it from a file on Jarre. I think by then it was also appearing on his IMDB page. Should I have triple checked? Yes.
But what I still find amazing is that NO ONE finds the initial plant at all tacky. I have no problem with a social media experiment being run, but it should not have been at the expense of Jarre. The student should have to apologize to Jarre's family and fans instead of crowing about pulling one over on the media. I cared about honoring his memory, NOT about doing a quick cut and paste, but that seems to have been lost in the general flames of this comment field.
I retracted it -- which again, is MORE than most outlets and sites did, and I stand by my statement that it was tacky.
I'll say nothing else on the matter.
5-12-2009 @ 3:18PM
Erik Davis said...
A mistake was made, and then corrected. Happens all the time; online, in print, on television. If we can't move on and celebrate this man's life and work, then we'll shut down the comments for this post.
Thanks,
Erik
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5-12-2009 @ 3:33PM
PG said...
The initial plant apparently sounded like something Jarre would say, so I don't see why Jarre's family should be offended. And have they said they are? or are you, a stranger to Jarre, trying to pull that mantle over yourself to defend your failure to check sources? Notably, the hoaxer didn't attempt to falsify a source for the quote, and it was pulled from Wikipedia within a few hours for failing to abide by *their* standards that require sourcing for quotations. Pity that so many media outlets -- including the Guardian, A.P. et al. -- have lower standards than a volunteer website does. But I suppose that's why they're relying on that website instead of doing their own work.
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5-12-2009 @ 6:51PM
Bob said...
Say nothing else, that's fine, but I find it amusing that media people are tending the blame the perpetrator of the hoax rather than their own sloppy fact-checking. Even the Guardian, which ran a retraction, characterized as "unfortunate" that the perpetrator took a month to reveal what he'd done. Given his intent, it made perfect sense - he wanted to see if there was anyone, just one person, who could figure this out.
I also find it ironic that you excuse yourself by saying that you saw it on A.P., thinking they must have gotten it from their files. This was EXACTLY his point! Thank you for making it again. Once something appears in print, it becomes fact. End of story. Print it enough times, and it's an unshakable truth.
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5-12-2009 @ 4:35PM
TA said...
Mr. Jarre's work was a delightful addition to cinema and his passing is felt strongly.
Ma'am, I applaud you for retracting the fake quote. I condemn you for blaming the author of the 'quote'. You are the one at fault for copying and pasting from Wikipedia, rather than taking responsibility for the accuracy of what you print. Your casual approach to editing brings everything in your site under suspicion and into disrepute.
You and those who visit this site would be well served by some serious attention to the proper practice of journalism on your part.
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