Alex North
Alex North
Alex Northwas an American composer best known for his many film scores, including A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata!, Spartacus, Cleopatra, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He was the first composer to receive an Honorary Academy Award, but never won a competitive Oscar despite fifteen nominations...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth4 December 1910
CountryUnited States of America
There are scores you have to write objectively without getting involved.
film best-film composing
My best film composing experience was with Elia Kazan.
art people film-music
Fear is a problem with film music and films; people want to be conventional, and there's more commercialism today. If you are not daring in your art, you're bankrupt.
hero film spartacus
Being an old radical, I like films like Spartacus. I could relate to the hero.
country two years
When I decided to go to a country that subsidized music, I went to the Soviet Union for two years.
country art turkeys
The United States and Turkey are the only two countries that don't have some kind of subsidy for the Arts. The whole culture in society has made certain films more acceptable. I turned down so many films in the '60s and '70s.
writing people recycling
I prefer to write music for family films. I like people.
friday tuesday records
Composers today get a TV script on Friday and have to record on Tuesday. It's just dreadful to impose on gifted talent and expect decent music under these conditions.
few musical
There are so few directors who are musical who appreciate music.
resulting
I like what I hear as a resulting combination of these two strands... something of a combination of familiarity and, for lack of a better word, strangeness.