Will the Oscars once again reward composer John Williams? He is nominated for “The Fabelmans”, his 29th collaboration with Steven Spielberg.
At 91, this is the 53rd nomination for John Williams at the Oscar for Best Original Score. 53 nominations: in the history of American cinema, only Walt Disney has done better. This shows the dimension acquired by this composer, who for nearly 50 years has become one of Spielberg’s regular collaborators.
However, he did not wait for Steven Spielberg to win an Oscar: the emeritus jazzman, who studied in the US Air Force and the prestigious Juilliard School in New York, received his first statuette in 1972 for A fiddler on the roofby Norman Jewison.
Spielberg, who spotted his work on Pictures by Robert Altman, asks him to take care of his first feature film, Tea Sugarland Express in 1974, then Sea teeth. For this film, Williams explains on CNN how he crafted music that made all the seas of the world menacing: “I thought of something approaching, inevitable, dangerous, disturbing. Something that starts slowly and then suddenly accelerates.”
Spielberg then introduces him to his friend George Lucas for Star Wars. The soft-spoken, white-bearded man concocts another masterpiece… and wins another statuette. His Wagnerian style magnifies heroes on the big screen, like Indiana Jones or Superman in the 80s. “Without his music, Superman’s powers greatly diminish, said actor Christopher Reeve at the time. Believe me, try to fly without the music and you won’t get anywhere!”
Half a century of complicity with Spielberg
Williams wins a fourth Oscar with AND. His collaboration with Steven Spielberg has lasted for half a century. The director explained to the American Film Institute a few years ago the working method of his composer: “John watches the film and he goes home. He sits alone at his hundred-year-old Steinway piano, with a yellow notebook and a pencil and he begins to write. Some of his orchestrations are as complex as Debussy and as accomplished as Stravinsky. “
The Fabelmans is their 29th film together and a chance for Academy voters to catch up: they didn’t reward Williams for Jurassic ParkHarry Potter Or Catch Me If You Can.
His last Oscar dates back to Schindler’s list (another Spielberg film!), in 1994. The musician often tells this anecdote: moved by the film, Williams had told the director that he had to find a better composer than him. “I knowSpielberg replied. But they are all dead.”
>> John Williams, the composer who changed the way you listen to movies