An inevitable consequence of the ugly Kim Novak/Artist soundtrack-rape saga had to be that other artists and actors would use the analogy to describe how, unauthorized, new legacies are built or enhanced using elements of their older ones. Right on cue, enter Courtney Love: “Courtney Love believes Kermit the Frog and his gang of Muppet friends ‘raped’ the memory of her ex-husband Kurt Cobain — by bastardizing Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ in their 2011 movie … without her permission. [...] But there’s another side to this … We’re told Courtney sold off half of her rights to Kurt’s music to a company called Primary Wave Music. And there’s more … Courtney also gave Primary Wave the exclusive right to distribute Nirvana’s entire catalog.” Mm-hmm. Anyway, isn’t this stuff supposed to be limited to awards season? Better luck next year, Courtney. [TMZ]
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Back in January, actress Kim Novak issued a statement decrying the use of Bernard Hermann’s theme from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo in eventual Oscar-winner The Artist, igniting a flurry of debate by calling it an act of rape. (“I want to report a rape,” she declared. “My body of work has been violated by The Artist.”) And whether or not you agreed then that it was an appropriate way to describe an act of artistic citation — the Academy Award-winning team behind The Artist would call it homage — Novak is back with another stunner that may reignite the conversation. “I didn’t use that word lightly,” she said in a report by The AP’s Derrik J. Lang today. “I had been raped as a child.”
Speaking about her upcoming honors at the TCM Classic Film Festival, the Artist controversy came up and Novak explained that she felt similarly when she learned of the film’s use of the Vertigo theme as she did when she was the victim of actual rape years ago.
“It was very painful,” said Novak. “When I said it was like a rape, that was how it felt to me. I had experienced in my youth being raped, and so I identified with a real act that had been done to me. I didn’t use that word lightly. I had been raped as a child. It was a rape I never told about, so when I experienced this one, I felt the need to express it.”
“I never reported my real rape, so I felt the need to report this one,” said Novak, who left Hollywood in the 1970s for Big Sur, an isolated section of California coastline, before eventually relocating to Oregon. “I felt that
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Kim Novak took out a full page ad in Variety a couple of months ago, because she wanted to shine a light on the INJUSTICE the makers of The Artist brought down on Vertigo. Kim basically citizen’s arrested The Artist for using a piece of Vertigo’s score even though the producers of The Artist gave credit and paid for it. Kim said that hearing Vertigo’s score while watching The Artist felt like rape. At the time, I didn’t make anything out of it, because a miniature Whoopi Goldberg was living in my head and told me that Kim didn’t mean rape rape, but oh she did. Kim clarified her comments to the Associated Press and said that she was raped as a child so she knows what it feels like. And hearing Vertigo’s score in The Artist felt just like rape. Err… ummmm… errr… lawd… yeah:
“It was very painful. When I said it was like a rape, that was how it felt to me. I had experienced in my youth being raped, and so I identified with a real act that had been done to me. I didn’t use that word lightly. I had been raped as a child. It was a rape I never told about, so when I experienced this one, I felt the need to express it. I never reported my real rape, so I felt the need
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Full Story »“I’ve done nothing wrong,” director Michel Hazanavicius told CNN when asked his reaction to Kim Novak’s recent comments lambasting The Artist for using the Vertigo love theme. “I used music from another movie, but it’s not illegal. We paid for that, we asked for that and we had the permission to do it. For me there is no real controversy…I feel sorry for her, but there’s a lot of movies with music from other movies, directors do that all the time and I’m not sure it’s a big deal.” [CNN]
Full Story »This just in: Kim Novak, star of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, has a beef with Oscar front-runner The Artist and its use of Bernard Herrmann’s iconic love theme from the 1958 classic. Let’s just cut to the chase and let Novak’s words speak for themselves: “I want to report a rape… my body of work has been violated by The Artist.”
Say what, Ms. Novak? Rape? Director Michel Hazanavicius might prefer the term “homage,” but potato, po-tah-to… perhaps some elaboration is in order. Novak’s personal missive, for which she composed a press release and took out a full-page trade ad, continues via Deadline:
“This film took the Love Theme music from Vertigo and used the emotions it engenders as its own. Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart can’t speak for themselves, but I can. It was our work that unconsciously or consciously evoked the memories and feelings to the audience that were used for the climax of The Artist.”
“There was no reason for them to depend on Bernard Herrmann’s score from Vertigo to provide more drama. Vertigo’s music was written during the filming. Hitchcock wanted the theme woven musically in the puzzle pieces of the storyline. Even though they did given Bernard Herrmann a small credit at the end, I believe this kind of filmmaking trick to be cheating. Shame on them!”
“It is morally wrong of people in our industry to use and abuse famous pieces of work to gain attention and applause for other than what the original work was intended. It is essential that all artists safeguard our special bodies of work for posterity, with their individual identities intact and protected.”
Novak has a point, to a point: Using a well-known piece from a beloved classic can,…
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