[Thor Joachim Haga]

I mostly think of films about prodigy musicians rather than composers for this (SHINE, THE SOLOIST, WHIPLASH, THE LEGEND OF 1900, THE SONG OF NAMES and so on).

But beyond those mentioned so far, Todd Field’s recent TÁR (2022) comes to mind. Cate Blanchett’s fictional composer Lydia Tár is seen working on and composing a piece throughout the film, but it’s never performed in full, not climactically like in MR. HOLLAND’S OPUS. That’s largely the point, as her aspirations and dreams are squashed. However, the piece CAN be heard in full on the soundtrack album, composed by the film’s composer Hildur Guðnadóttir. So that’s a similar situation to the Kamen-Dreyfus in MHO.

And how should we label a film like THE RED VIOLIN (1998)? About an instrument? About musicians? Or about composers (one of the segments is about a composer who draws inspiration from the instrument)? John Corigliano’s score is great, capturing both the spirit of the instrument and – if memory serves – attempts to compose things in-story.