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In Toronto, Canada:
Pretend we live in a civilized country. Bring a bottle of wine to share with them. Valentino went against conventional Hollywood wisdom for a male lead. June Mathis, placed in charge of this production at Metro, saw in the young, unremarkable actor a rare and unrevealed magnetic personality. She fought for him. She won. The meteor took off. To the consternation of everyone but June Mathis the biggest star in the history of the movies erupted onto the screen. More than one man hated him. He offered what they could not even begin to promise.
I bought a 16mm print of THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE in the 1990s. While I waited for it to arrive I researched the music of the era. A fellow told me he had seen the film and the soundtrack was not on the beat. I am not a trained musician. I first scored the film using Argentine music in the Argentines, French period music when the family moved to Paris. This did not work for me. I scrapped everything. Then I used the Tango as my motif throughout the film. I run a screening space on my first floor, The CineForum. One night a very old man and a very young woman arrived. When the presentation was over the woman said, “The music. The Music. The Music.” The man said, “We are from Argentina. You had that on the beat all the way through. We’re going to send Argentine people here.” The scene above presented a particular challenge. When Rodolfo Valentino steps in the dance with the girl it was akin, I learned, to male male rape. The music had to bring that out even though most watching the film are completely ignorant of the subtext.
I did that all the way through the film. I let the film speak to me before I began to score it.–Reg Hartt
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