One of the most amazing composers Zbigniew Preisner gave a talk about his work at the Barbican Center in London following screening of a A Short Film About Killing by his colleague and friend Krzysztof Kieślowski. Preisner wrote music for many amazing films including The Double Life of Veronique, Three colours (Blue, White, Red) and Europ
a Europa. He also composed a monumental “Requiem for my friend” following death of Kieślowski.
Preisner is full of energy, humor and unique charm. At some point his mimique and smile reminded me a famous Russian artists and clown Slava Polunin. Preisner has a very clear concept about the role of music in films. He says: Music always has to tell you something that you can’t see. It is like a circulation of blood through movie”. According to Preisner, music in movie never ends with the melody, but it’s a part of the general flow: “Silence is important – music can’t work without silence.” – explained Preisner. His favorite composer is Niño Rota: “Imagine Fellini’s movies without music.”
Obviously, Preisner talks about Kieślowski. He says the Kieślowski understood the function of music, despite the fact that he didn’t have musical hearing: “He always asked to write music that he can repeat… It was impossible to write so simple music.” – jokes Preisner. He also telles that Kieslowski stopped filming documentary since he felt that he ruined life’s of his heroes.
One of the funniest stories that Preisner told was about invention of a composer Van den Budenmayer. Actually, Budenmayer never existed, but later Presiner was accused in plagiarism and he was almost sued for it.
Preisner is also very sarcastic about the U.S. in general and Hollywood in particular. Polish composer recalled unpleasant experineces with Hollywood’s producers, but he promised to come back there, once “humanism returns to Hollywood”.
I am a doctoral student in London School of Economics (LSE). I work on a PhD about the Internet's role in time of natural disasters.
I was born in Russia, lived in Israel and the U.S. and currently based in UK. But actually I am a citizen of British Airways and resident of Starbucks who lives in a space of flows and conducts daily mass-self communication.
I am not sure if it gets colder or we face warming, if it's glocal or global, if it's day or night, but it's swarming outside. Sometimes it looks like chaos, but actually it has some order. And even if the complexity of system means that there is nothing to do but to follow the chaotic swarms, I still believe in the power of individual to shape the structure. For this purpose we should engage critically with global swarming flows. This blog is a space of my self-reflexivity.
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