Hans Zimmer Extracts the Secrets of the 'Inception' Score

nytimes.com:

Having systematically picked apart the critical arguments for and against Christopher Nolan's film "Inception" and the many possible meanings of that dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream caper, the Web this week went another level into the movie by focusing on its music.

In recent days Internet denizens have gotten very excited about a viral video (posted above) that compares the Édith Piaf song "Non, je ne Regrette Rien" to Hans Zimmer's score for the movie. When the video's pseudonymous author, camiam321, plays the key musical cue from that score, two ominous blares from a brass section, followed by a slowed-down version of the Piaf song (which the "Inception" characters play at regular speed as a warning to wake up from a dream state), they sound nearly identical.

Read the whole story

Comments

[EdMuse]

11:22 PM on 07/30/2010

And?!?!?!?!?!?!

[Jason Goad]

10:03 PM on 07/30/2010

I loved the score to the movie... very reminiscent of Blade Runner which is probably my favorite score ever... and seeing (hearing) brilliant hidden things such as this make me like it even more....

[ValdaDeDieu]

02:30 PM on 07/30/2010

I found the movie superb, the theme, context and precepts: original. And by the way, that actor depicted (standing here in the photo), I found riveting.

[lightist]

11:37 PM on 07/29/2010

Not interested in films that are so 'intelligent' that they lack clarity of 'conscience'. What I mean by this is that I felt overwhelmed by the films drive and complexity, and underwhelmed by the films humanness. It 'lacks heart' in all it's brave new presence. It's too impressive, though I love to see matter float in weightless splendor. The sound is too jangley on the nervous system though I did try to get along with it.

[american-dolt]

02:29 PM on 07/29/2010

Is this the only way they can "try" to make an intelligent movie, by in-out dream sequences you can only guess at? Pathetic.

[bartonfink]

01:00 PM on 07/29/2010

The linked article talks about Zimmer's manipulation of the Piaf song, which is fine and interesting in the way he divided and subdivided it to use as an aural landmark, but the original score in the film is horrendous. It's some of the most over-bearing, portentous dreck I can remember being distracted by in a film, and almost ruined it for me. The people I saw the film with were of the same mind after we left the theater. This was especially true for the final redemption sequence, which seemed foreshortened and a bit slapdash compared to the rest of the film anyway. Adding Zimmer's musical flag-waving to call attention to the psychological closure (or was it?) of Cobb's character arc, after the audience has followed him and invested 2+ hrs in his story, seemed to indicate a lack of confidence in the audience on the part of Nolan and Zimmer. I'll see the film again to (hopefully) flesh out more of its "secrets," but it will definitely be in spite of Zimmer's contribution.

[PORK RIND]

12:22 PM on 07/29/2010

I have to master the deepest secrets of Kabbalah in order to see this movie?

Thanks, but no thanks.

[jws2346]

10:23 AM on 07/29/2010

Next week we go into the psychedelic meaning of the quilted bed spread. It looks like it's E2D2's. Wooooo....

[oski the bear]

09:55 AM on 07/29/2010

Amazing detail about an amazing movie. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who hasn't seen it. There are not many movies that can really *affect* the viewer. Not just getting him/her to think, but to really change experience. This movie did that.