Be it a gentle piano interlude or a glorious orchestral fanfare, no element of filmcraft sets a movie’s tone and identity quite like the musical score. Film music has the power to underline a filmmaker’s narrative ideas, forge our bond to a heroic character, and move us to the point of tears. Join us all year long as we showcase cinema’s iconic composers whose musical talents enrich the images we see on screen and have us humming their unforgettable melodies as we exit the auditorium. The series continues in October with the iconic monster flick GODZILLA! 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗧𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀: princetongardentheatre.org/specials
𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲: The roaring granddaddy of all monster movies. A 400-foot fire-breathing kaiju comes to life in the wake of nuclear testing and makes a beeline for an unsuspecting Tokyo, causing unwanted destruction along its path. Presented in its original Japanese version, this undisputed classic is a remarkably humane and poignant film, made at a time when Japan was still recovering from WWII. Presented in a new restoration with subtitles.
𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲: In some ways, composer Akira Ifukube’s GODZILLA score feels like a piece with many other scores from mid-century Japanese cinema; in that historical sense, it is worthy of inclusion in our series. But it is that banner theme for the great prehistoric monster, which accompanies this movie’s opening credits with such grandeur, that truly sets this score apart. The Godzilla theme relies heavily on menacingly low-octave brass and woodwinds. There is a steady drumbeat, suggestive of the Godzilla’s footsteps. The result is no less than a musical personification of the King of the Monsters. There is a relentless, lumbering, droning quality, suggesting impeccably that a city-ending cataclysm is nigh. The main theme of GODZILLA has proven so iconic in its seventy years, it has been repurposed for a more triumphant context as recently as the 2023 international hit Godzilla: Minus One, proving why this timeless movie monster will never go extinct.
𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝗻𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 $𝟭𝟬!Become a member of our nonprofit theater for as little as $40 a year. Learn more at princetongardentheatre.org/membership
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