4th Film Music Festival

4 Days in a Dream Factory

Let’s imagine that the Japanese Princess Mononoke is in an encounter with our native Witcher, while the Pirates of the Caribbean fight side by side the soldiers of the Polish Home Army. From 19 to 22 May such a script will become reality. It’s time for the 4th Film Music Festival, whose plot unravels in the Nowa Huta Dream Factory – the ArcelorMittal Poland Electrolytic Tinning Plant.

The first score in the history of cinema written for a moving image was created over a hundred years ago by Camille Saint-Saëns (a soundtrack specially composed for the needs of the 1908 movie The Assassination of the Duke of Guise). Since those days, the director’s fancy has gone hand in hand with the composer’s imagination. The Film Music Festival in Kraków has been devoted to this peculiar symbiosis. From the outset, a defining feature of the event has been the combining of film music interpretations of the highest quality with optimal screening conditions. The organisers, in an attempt to meet audience expectations, have stuck to a programme that is diverse in terms of genre. They have also adopted new initiatives. And it will be no different this year.

In the Land of Anime
The festival will be inaugurated by an appearance by a legend of the Japanese Studio Ghibli – Joe Hisaishi. It will be the composer’s first concert in Europe! Since he began in 1981, Hisaishi has created over 100 soundtracks and albums. He collaborates on a regular basis with the director Hayao Miyazaki (one of the best creators of anime). But this John Williams of the Orient is not limited just to fantasy and myth. Apart from fairy tale worlds, the compositions of Hisaishi illustrate more mundane “dealings” – he has created scores for Takeshi Kitano’s movies dealing with the Yakuza.

Hisaishi avoids applying the musical embellishments and flourishes so characteristic of Hollywood composers. The entire thrust of his exceptionally simple and lucid music relies on beautiful motifs and marvellous arrangements. The relationship of Hisaishi to the piano, which appears on almost all his soundtracks, is very interesting. The composer himself is a seasoned pianist and always performs the piano parts on his soundtracks in person. This model of musical erudition is not only a composer, conductor, arranger and producer: he also directs. In 2001 he made his debut in this role by shooting the film Quartet, regarded as the first Japanese musical, for which he also wrote the screenplay.

In Kraków, cult productions from the Studio Ghibli will be presented: Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away (regarded by fans as one of the very best anime films). Then there’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the production which began the series of animations by the aforementioned studio. Curiously there was a ban on the transmission of the film in East Europe (and also in Poland) and a boycott in West Germany (due to protests by ecological organisations). For the movie contained scenes of ecological catastrophe and its premiere in these countries coincided with the explosion in the nuclear reactor in Chernobyl.

During the festival’s grand opening, we can also hear suites from Kitano gangster films (including Hana-bi, Kids Return and Summer). And all of this is for a monumental lineup of 250 performers (including Wioletta Chodowicz – soprano, the Pro Musica Mundi Choir and Sinfonietta Cracovia) under the baton of Joe Hisaishi himself! 19 May is the date for a musical jacuzzi.
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It’s All in the Game
We’ll be dallying a little longer in the company of the Japanese and in fantastical lands on the second day of the festival. It’s not only video game fans that are waiting for this concert. On 20 May in the ArcelorMittal Poland Electrolytic Tinning Plant the music written by Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu for one of the top cult video games in the world, Final Fantasy, can be heard in Poland for the first time. Hamauzu will be visiting Kraków to meet his fans and the event will be directed by one of the most important conductors in this genre, Grammy winner and discoverer and tireless promoter of computer game music – Arnold Roth. The rich layer of sound in Final Fantasy, a series which has so far sold 100 million copies, will be illustrated by HD-quality video materials. The Kraków public are the second in Europe (after Stockholm) to hear the concert in an expanded version containing a specially extended sequence from the 13th part of the series with music by Masashi Hamauzu.

The multiple-award-winning Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy programme will be preceded by the premiere performance of a suite from the Polish game The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings – composed by Adam Skorupa and Krzysztof Wierzynkiewicz and specially commissioned by the festival. Relating the adventures of Geralt of Rivia (based on motifs from Andrzej Sapkowski’s saga), this game is the Polish counterpart to the successful Final Fantasy. A production costing 19 million PLN and released in 15 language versions, The Witcher received around 100 prices and commendations. The premiere of the second part of the game (with a production budget of around 30 million PLN) is planned for a few days before the festival.
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The Wide Open Ocean
On the following day, the Jolly Roger will be flying over Nowa Huta: this distinctive skull and crossbones is the identification badge of pirates. On Saturday 21 May, the Pirates of the Caribbean will be sailing for us in full clobber. Scary! This adventure film with fantastical elements has already run to three sequels. The premiere of the fourth part – Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – is planned for the day before the concert in Kraków that inaugurates the latest (after The Lord of the Rings) cycle of festival performances. The Krakow Festival Office has made contact with the Disney studio, thanks to which it has been possible to create a special version of the film emphasising its musical attributes – modelled on the working of Peter Jackson’s trilogy which became a showcase for the festival and determined its direction of development. The first part of the screen megahit Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) was the production of director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The idea for the feature-length film arose from a presentation staged in Disneyland. The soundtrack for the movie which began the famous series is considered as one of the best three soundtracks from 2003.

Klaus Badelt in cooperation with Hans Zimmer created a splendid and unusual work comprised of climactic, powerful sounds. The heroic leading motif of the main protagonist Captain Jack Sparrow – The Medallion Calls, musically describing a pirate battle, has entered film music history. Klaus Badelt will be appearing in Kraków to take part in the concert preparations. This German composer began his career with the creation of music for films and advertisements. He has written over 25 compositions for the screen, including pieces for Mission: Impossible II, Mutant Ninja Turtles, Le Petit Nicolas and The Recruit. The concert on 21 May will be directed by one of the most esteemed Disney studio conductors, Richard Kaufman, a Grammy winner in 1993. Anyway, I guess you need very little more encouragement to take part in this spectacle – for who can resist a charming rogue of the likes of Johnny Depp?
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The Dark and Silent vs. The Lost
The last day of the festival will be introducing us into an epic heroic mood. On Sunday 22 May the music will be performed for one of the most important television productions of recent years – Czas honoru (Time of honour). Transmitted since September 2008, this TVP2 serial was inspired by the story of Polish Home Army soldiers – the so-called cichociemni (the dark and silent). The production, which initially was supposed to close after two seasons, has run to a (soon to be screened) fourth series, which will lead viewers into the post-war era. The number of viewers watching this history of the Polish underground elite has reached 5 million. In the unanimous opinion of the serial’s producers, the music has contributed to its success. The creator of the soundtrack is Bartosz Chajdecki. This Cracovian composer is one of the most interesting figures of the younger generation in Polish film music. Already as 12-year-old composer he was attracted the attention of Zbigniew Preisner, who reviewed his work and gave the young Bartek tips relating to his first scores. Chajdecki has undoubted talent for melody. Apart from conscious allusions and games with form, his works are characterised by their musical consistence and the recognisability of their themes. The Cracovian’s music for Czas honoru was nominated for the IFMCA (International Film Music Critics Association) annual award in the Best Original Score for Television category. The Polish production squared up in the contest for the prize with such internationally known serials as Doctor Who, Lost or Human Target.

The concert finale of the 4th Film Music Festival in Kraków will be honoured by the presence of stars of the Polish screen – Magdalena Różczka, Maciej Zakościelny, Agnieszka Więdłocha, Antoni Pawlicki, Jan Wieczorkowski, Katarzyna Gniewkowska i Ewa Wencel – and also the composer himself Bartosz Chajdecki.
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As usual, it will be possible to meet special guests of the festival face to face during the Festival Academy. This year fans will be able to contrast themselves with Joe Hisaishi, Klaus Badelt, Masashi Hamauzu, Arnold Roth and Bartosz Chajdecki, and also discover how the music arose for the films of Takeshi Kitano and Hayao Miyazaki and Final Fantasy and Witcher. We can also get to know the backstage gossip from the collaboration between Klaus Badelt and Jerry Bruckheimer, and Hans Zimmer and the Disney Studio.


Tickets will be available from the 21st of March from the website www.eventim.pl. 
More information at: www.fmf.fm