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Rudy Behlmer – Filmhistoriker und Produzent im Interview

Autor und Produzent Rudy Behlmer hat durch seine Dokumentationen, DVDs und Publikationen über Filmregisseure und Filmproduzenten einen großen Ruf als Filmhistoriker erworben. In dem Interview spricht er vorrangig über die Bedeutung Max Steiners und dessen Beitrag zur Entwicklung der Filmmusik in den Filmen King Kong und Gone with the Wind.

„[Steiner is] extremely versatile and he obviously knows what he’s doing and he has a dramatic sense, which is all important. It’s one thing to be able to write music and it’s another think to have a feeling of how it works with the film.“
„[King Kong] was probably, at that time, the most advanced score in terms of what music would bring to the film.“


Questions: Could you say, that King Kong was actually the first original symphonic score for a feature film?
Do you think, that King Kong would have been a success without this music, actually?
Steiner says, he used, for example, the click track system for King Kong, climbing up the Empire State Building
– was he actually the one, who was the first to use click track for a film?

Questions: John Waxman said, that Hollywoood's music was actually a European invention,
because there was Steiner, there was Korngold and Waxman. What is your opinion about that?
You are also a specialist of Korngold. What was Korngold's biggest contribution to the music of Hollywood, do you think?
Details from an interview with the total length of 66 min.

Film historian and writer Rudy Behlmer shares his knowledge of Max Steiner’s illustrious Hollywood career. He talks of the beginning of Steiner’s career and labor relations with RKO, Warner Brothers, and David O. Selznick. Behlmer also contemplates the major works of Steiner, such as King Kong and Gone With the Wind, and the impact they had on Hollywood film music. Behlmer discusses the innovations such as the click track, orchestra recording, and use of the Leitmotiv pioneered by Max Steiner. Finally, Behlmer concludes by addressing the end of Steiner’s career and his personal qualities.

Die Fragen stellte Sandra Tomek.