May December (Soundtrack from the Netflix Film) | ||||
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Film score by | ||||
Released | December 1, 2023 | |||
Genre | Film score | |||
Length | 20:45 | |||
Label | Netflix Music | |||
Producer | Marcelo Zarvos | |||
Marcelo Zarvos chronology | ||||
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Michel Legrand chronology | ||||
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May December (Soundtrack from the Netflix Film) is the soundtrack to the 2023 film of the same name directed by Todd Haynes. The film is scored by Marcelo Zarvos who adapted late Michel Legrand's compositions from The Go-Between (1971), [1] while also scoring original tunes. The score was released by Netflix Music on December 1,2023.
May December is scored by Marcelo Zarvos,who previously collaborated with Haynes on Dark Waters (2019). [2] Zarvos adapted and reorchestrated the music from Legrand's The Go-Between and alternatively composed melodies in piano. [3] [4] According to Haynes,"the score sits so upfront and ahead of and beyond the ultimate events that unfold in that particular storyline" where the audiences be alert of an incident happening,and then read the details in the frame and the performances acutely,in every single moment. The music reenforces that in a mischievous sense,where this can be a pleasurable inquisition. [5]
Haynes initially thought of the music while reading the script and regularly played the score from that film in both the filming and editing process,attempting the film's need to give the audience that kind of invitation and employ the emotional effect throughout,in scenes that lacked dialogues. While supervising the edit,he shared the cues from the score to Zarvos which he felt excited and used many aspects of the music that he had adapted and added original music to it and re-orchestrated it. This even served as a metaphor for the film. [5]
No. | Title | Music | Length |
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1. | "Opening" | Michel Legrand | 1:14 |
2. | "Elizabeth Drives" | Marcelo Zarvos | 1:56 |
3. | "Studying Gracie" | Legrand | 1:54 |
4. | "Butterfly Eggs" | Legrand | 1:37 |
5. | "Elizabeth Meets Ex" | Legrand | 0:57 |
6. | "Storage Room" | Zarvos | 1:06 |
7. | "Old Photos" | Legrand | 0:36 |
8. | "Joe and Father Talk" | Zarvos | 0:38 |
9. | "School Visit" | Zarvos | 0:51 |
10. | "Graduation" | Legrand | 2:18 |
11. | "Gracie Cries" | Zarvos | 1:36 |
12. | "Mirror Images" | Legrand | 0:47 |
13. | "Joe Showers" | Legrand | 1:12 |
14. | "Dropping Off Mary" | Zarvos | 0:58 |
15. | "The Letter" | Zarvos | 0:32 |
16. | "Elizabeth On Set" | Legrand | 2:33 |
Total length: | 20:45 |
Bilge Ebiri of Variety described the music "dramatic" that announces the "ridiculous tonal shifts this seemingly placid film will take". [1] Farah Cheded of Paste and Shirley Li of The Atlantic described it as "histrionic" and "discordant", [6] [7] while Wendy Ide of The Guardian called it as "deliciously overwrought" score that "brings with it a frisson of illicit passions". [8] Sean Collier of Pittsburgh Magazine called it as a "hyperactive, daytime-movie style score [...] highlights the incongruity". [9] Justin Chang of Los Angeles Times said that Zarvos "offers a lush reworking of Michel Legrand's score from the 1971 romantic drama 'The Go-Between'." [10]
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a 1964 musical romantic drama film written and directed by Jacques Demy, with music by Michel Legrand. Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo star as two young lovers in the French city of Cherbourg, separated by circumstance. The film's dialogue is entirely sung as recitative, including casual conversation, and is sung-through, or through-composed, like some operas and stage musicals. It has been seen as the middle part of an informal "romantic trilogy" of Demy films that share some of the same actors, characters, and overall look, coming after Lola (1961) and before The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967). The French-language film was a co-production between France and West Germany.
Michel Jean Legrand was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz pianist. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to many songs. His scores for two of the films of French New Wave director Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), earned Legrand his first Academy Award nominations. Legrand won his first Oscar for the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), and additional Oscars for Summer of '42 (1971) and Barbra Streisand's Yentl (1983).
Todd Haynes is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender roles.
Ethel is a New York based string quartet that was co-founded in 1998 by Ralph Farris, viola; Dorothy Lawson, cello; Todd Reynolds, violin; and Mary Rowell, violin. Unlike most string quartets, Ethel plays with amplification and integrates improvisation into its performances. The group's current membership includes violinists Kip Jones and Corin Lee.
Marcelo Uchoa Zarvos is a Brazilian pianist and composer.
The Go-Between is a 1971 British historical drama film directed by Joseph Losey. Its screenplay by Harold Pinter is an adaptation of the 1953 novel The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley. The film stars Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave and Dominic Guard. It won the Palme d'Or at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.
Bilge Ebiri is an English-born American journalist and filmmaker. His first feature film, a comedy thriller entitled New Guy, was released in 2004.
Victoria Garance Alixe Legrand is a French-American musician, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter and keyboardist of the dream pop duo Beach House.
Carol is a 2015 romantic historical drama film directed by Todd Haynes. The screenplay by Phyllis Nagy is based on the 1952 romance novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. The film stars Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Jake Lacy, and Kyle Chandler. Set in New York City during the early 1950s, Carol tells the story of a forbidden affair between an aspiring female photographer and an older woman going through a difficult divorce.
Hateship, Loveship is a 2013 American drama film directed by Liza Johnson and written by Mark Poirier, based on the 2001 short story "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" by Alice Munro. The film stars Kristen Wiig, Hailee Steinfeld, Guy Pearce, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nick Nolte. It premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2013.
Alan Bergman and Marilyn Keith Bergman were an American songwriting duo. Married from 1958 until Marilyn's death, together they wrote music and lyrics for numerous celebrated television, film, and stage productions. The Bergmans enjoyed a successful career, honored with four Emmys, three Oscars, and two Grammys. They are in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
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May December is a 2023 American drama film directed by Todd Haynes from a screenplay by Samy Burch, based on a story by Burch and Alex Mechanik. Loosely inspired by the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal, it stars Natalie Portman as an actress who travels to meet and study the life of the controversial woman she is set to play in a film—a woman infamous for the 23-year-long relationship with her husband which began when he was 13 years old.
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The Equalizer 3 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2023 film The Equalizer 3, the third instalment in The Equalizer franchise. The score featuring original music composed by Marcelo Zarvos released coinciding with the film on September 1, 2023, by Madison Gate Records. Dutch artist Thomas Azier provided additional composition for the film and his song Love, Disorderly was used for the soundtrack.
The score, by Marcelo Zarvos, is actually an adaptation and reorchestration of Michel Legrand's music for Joseph Losey's 1971 forbidden-romance drama The Go-Between .