After hearing much criticism of the film’s excessive beauty, I finally saw Tom Ford’s A Single Man the other day and, quite frankly, loved every frame, every word, every sound. Many people, as well as paid critics, bash the rigorous “handsomeness” of the film. The film is, without a doubt, very beautiful to look at and is impeccably designed – a quality that can alienate or intimidate people who might not have Tom Ford’s knack for… well… making things look beautiful.
Without going into detail about my own experience, I would argue that a true appreciation of and identification with the film almost requires personal experience with the paralyzing loss on the scale experienced by the lead character, George, played so exquisitely by Colin Firth. So when I hear someone say, “Oh, it just looked like a melodramatic perfume ad,” I want to tell him to bury someone he’s very much in love with, see the film again, then get back to me.
But one of the things that struck me as I saw the film was the score. I have a keen ear for certain types of music. There are certain film scores that are among my absolute favorite music selections. At a certain point in the A Single Man, I heard startlingly beautiful yet very familiar notes in the film’s score. Almost immediately, I knew that the notes were from Bernard Herrmann’s score for Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.
When I got home, I did a brief investigation. On the soundtrack for A Single Man is a track by Shigeru Umebayashi called “A Variation On Scotty Tails Madeline.” In the film Vertigo, Scotty is Jimmy Stewart’s character, and Madeline is Kim Novak’s character. Then, of course, I looked at the Vertigo soundtrack from 1958: there is a track called “Scotty Tails Madeline.” Beautiful. And the gorgeous notes, in both Vertigo and A Single Man, played underneath stories of broken men mourning the loss of a true love, are breathtaking. I bought them both…
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You are spot on about identifying with the film on having had the persoanl experience of some kind of loss. You may find those who complaint about the beauty of the film are suffering from the fear of oneself.
I was so happy to see someone else make the parallel to “Vertigo!” When Colin Firth is sitting in the bank and that musical score comes on, it brought me straight into “Vertigo.” And as he looks up at the little girl, her dress turns a deep shade of blue and, well, I couldn’t help but think of the blue haze that surrounds Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak after he transforms the “new” Madeline and they share a passionate kiss. And then the next scene in “A Single Man” goes straight to the “Psycho” backdrop. The whole thing took my breath away — I was sure it was a homage to the master, Hitch!
Thanks for seeing it, too, and for the info on the soundtrack. I’m so checking into that!
A nod? It’s a complete rip off note for note and ironically the best track on the album. Herrmann the legend.