A friend called me yesterday to read to me from the full-page ad that Kim Novak took out in Variety to lash out at the creators of The Artist for using part of the score from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 movie Vertigo.
“I want to report a rape,” Novak began. “My body of work has been violated.”
Putting aside for a minute that Novak, who starred with Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo, did not compose the score (Bernard Herrmann did), her complaint struck as ludicrous on its face. Isn’t The Artist supposed to be an homage to old Hollywood movies? Didn’t Novak realize that
Of course, it being award season and all, her accusation could not go unanswered. The Artist, after all, is considered a frontrunner for an Oscar nomination. Accusations that its makers wrongly pilfered other people’s work (especially accusations coming from a screen “legend”) could derail its chances.
Deadline Hollywood jumped all over it.
Novak’s manager, Sue Cameron, told the website that the actress, an Academy member and Oscar voter, had watched The Artist on DVD while preparing her ballot.
“She was sitting in her living room, she put the DVD in, and then went into an absolute state of shock and devastation,” Cameron said.
“When you sit in a theater and familiar music comes on that engenders ready-made emotion from a past film, and they use that music to evoke those same emotions, it’s quite hurtful,” she said. “We know that they had the legal right to use the music, but it’s the music that was the backdrop for classic scenes, like Kim and Jimmy Stewart kissing by the tree, driving along the coast in the car. She is very, very upset.”
Responding, The Weinstein Company, which is distributing the movie, released a statement from Michel Hazanavicious, who wrote, directed and edited The Artist:
“The Artist was made as a love letter to cinema, and grew out of my (and all of my cast and crew’s) admiration and respect for movies throughout history. It was inspired by the work of Hitchcock, Lang, Ford, Lubitsch, Murnau and Wilder. I love Bernard Herrmann and his music has been used in many different films and I’m very pleased to have it in mine. I respect Kim Novak greatly and I’m sorry to hear she disagrees.”
The film further reports that the Academy’s music branch had reviewed the score and deemed it eligible for an Oscar because it is 80% original and the use of Herrmann’s music was meant as an homage.
As for my thoughts, they pretty much dovetail with those of David Schmader, who wrote in The Stranger yesterday: “Here’s hoping Ms. Novak is never forced to learn firsthand exactly how ridiculous her claim of “rape” is. (But I wouldn’t mind if someone hit her in the face with a pie.)”
Eric Harrison has reported on film and reviewed movies for the Los Angeles Times and the Houston Chronicle, where he was chief film critic for five years. He has won awards for his film criticism and reporting. He teaches journalism at Texas Southern University in Houston. 