RFI: Classical Music in Scorsese's "After Hours"

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Sort've a stupid question, but the soundtrack section on IMDB doesn't list it. Bascially, there are two points in the film when classical music are playing: during the opening credits and during the opening scene wherein protagonist Paul Hackett (played by Griffin Dunne) is sitting in his office. Both pieces are immediately familiar bits of classical music, but I don't know enough about classical music to be able to connect the music with the composer (let alone the piece). Can anyone help?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 1 October 2003 19:35 (9 years ago) Permalink

The piece playing during the credits is the opening allegro from Mozart's symphony #45.

The piece in the office is the air from Bach's third orchestral suite, aka "Air on a G String." (This piece is also famous for inspiring "A Whiter Shade of Pale".)

― Jeremy (Jeremy), Friday, 3 October 2003 11:47 (9 years ago) Permalink

THANK YOU, JEREMY

I was convinced that I was doomed to wander the earth like damned soul, never knowing the answer to this question. May the road rise to meet you, sir.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:27 (9 years ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

On August 17, 2004...a grave injustice shall finally be upended as :"After Hours" is finally released on DVD. Since first seeing the film in 1985, I have been unhealthily obsessed with it. Someone out there must share my enthusiasm, surely. This is probably better suited to ILFilm, I s'pose.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 29 May 2004 06:41 (8 years ago) Permalink

great film.

good use of peggy lee's "is that all there is?" too.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 29 May 2004 06:51 (8 years ago) Permalink

i like this film better than "raging bull."

― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 29 May 2004 06:51 (8 years ago) Permalink

Sorry I sounded like a flippant dick on your rockism thread, amateur!st..

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 29 May 2004 06:53 (8 years ago) Permalink

water under the bridge, my man, water under the bridge.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 29 May 2004 06:55 (8 years ago) Permalink

Since first seeing the film in 1985, I have been unhealthily obsessed with it.

...and Rosanna Arquette.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Saturday, 29 May 2004 07:44 (8 years ago) Permalink

I have been known, when pissed, to insist that not only is this Scorsese's finest hour, but also the funniest film of all time.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 29 May 2004 08:26 (8 years ago) Permalink

Amen, brother!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 29 May 2004 08:28 (8 years ago) Permalink

"A terrific movie!"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 29 May 2004 16:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

Scorsese aside, also gotta give credit where it's due to the screenwrier Joseph Minion, not only for this but also his great "Vampire's Kiss", Nicolas Cage's finest hour-and-a-half. Two remarkably original scripts, both evoking a distinctly weird 1980s-Manhattan vibe. (At least, evocative for me personally - I've never been there, so I may not know what I'm talking about.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Sunday, 30 May 2004 03:46 (8 years ago) Permalink

("Screenwrier" = "screenwriter", obv.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Sunday, 30 May 2004 03:55 (8 years ago) Permalink

'vampire's kiss' is incredible. thanks for connecting those two films up for me.

― (Jon L), Sunday, 30 May 2004 04:14 (8 years ago) Permalink

There's a phone number mentioned in connection with the plaster of Paris sculptures of bagel and cream cheese. I called it in the early 90s, got an answer, and hung up. What happens now?

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Sunday, 30 May 2004 05:01 (8 years ago) Permalink

both evoking a distinctly weird 1980s-Manhattan vibe.

I'll have to rent "Vampire's Kiss" again, but you're dead right about that "vibe" in regards to "After Hours" (though that Manhattan is sadly dead and gone).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 30 May 2004 11:56 (8 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

It's out....extras include a documentary about the making-of and commentary by both Scorcese and Griffin Dunne. Haven't watched it yet, but am excited. Huzzah.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 18:55 (8 years ago) Permalink

i was going to revive this thread to tell you that alex!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 19 August 2004 00:53 (8 years ago) Permalink

Watching it right now, actually. The documentary's alright. The delted scenes are nice. The commentary is a bit dissapointing. Too much anecdotal detritus from the director of photography about other films. I was hoping for more of a shot-by-shot backgrounder. There's a tiny bit of that, but not enough (not like compared to, say, The Exorcist, wherein director William Friedkin went into every miniscule aspect of each shot). Still, this is all long overdue. Not done watching it. Maybe it'll get more in-depth.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 19 August 2004 01:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

xpost to the first answer to this post-

if I'm not mistaken, Mozart wrote 41 symphonies, the last (not long before his death) being the Jupiter. So the chance that the music playing during the credits is the opening Allegro to his Symphony #45 is actually quite miniscule. I've never seen the movie, so I can't help out on what it actually is, but hopefully someone else can.

― lemin (lemin), Thursday, 19 August 2004 04:06 (8 years ago) Permalink

glad to know there are other people out there who are haunted/obsessed/overwhelmed by "After Hours". Puzzling and fantastically labyrinthine. When i saw it, it was such an experience: one of the cornerstones of my totally fictious idea of America.

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Thursday, 19 August 2004 06:21 (8 years ago) Permalink

I'm trying to think of other movies/stories that have a similar plot device to this: ie., the "through the Looking Glass" kind of thing where a person's regular life is suddenly interrupted and they are taken into a kind of alternative universe by an improbable series of coincidences and events, but then at the end they return to their "normal" reality, perhaps a bit older and wiser, but otherwise unscathed. Actually this seems like a fairly common device, though perhaps the combination of this with the compression of the time in which the events take place into a single evening is a bit rarer. Some similar plots (though in different ways) are perhaps Planes, Trains and Automobiles (which has the regular person's life derailed by improbable coincidences) and Mike Leigh's Naked (which has the same compression of events into a single evening, with similar allusions to a mythical journey through the underworld, ie. realm of darkness).

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 19 August 2004 10:07 (8 years ago) Permalink

Btw, somebody over on the IMDB message board thinks that the music over the opening credits is from an early Mozart symphony, probably Symphony 11 in D major.

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 19 August 2004 10:49 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Mohawk this guy!"

― briania (briania), Thursday, 19 August 2004 11:17 (8 years ago) Permalink

Oh man, I can't wait get to get the dvd.

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Thursday, 19 August 2004 11:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

"I said I wanted to see a plaster of paris bagel and cream cheese paperweight! Now cough it up!"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 6 February 2006 03:49 (7 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

Are you really sure that the music during the credits is the symphony No. 45 of Mozart?

― Macgoohan, Monday, 29 May 2006 13:16 (6 years ago) Permalink

I burned out on this movie by seeing it too many times

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 29 May 2006 14:12 (6 years ago) Permalink

10 months pass...

i miss the nyc of the 80s :(
i remember going to see this movie in paris, summer of 1988, at some revival/art house because i was homesick

not a perfect movie, but a lot of fun, and oh so much better than miramax-era scorsese

― gershy, Thursday, 26 April 2007 07:18 (6 years ago) Permalink

Ah, but it is a perfect movie!!

― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 26 April 2007 11:41 (6 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

http://www.panopticist.com/2008/05/the_scandalous_origins_of_martin_scorseses_after_hours.html

― s1ocki, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 18:45 (4 years ago) Permalink

there is no official 'symphony no.45', was jeremy thinking of no. 40, or even no.41? no.40 has the famous opening (molto) allegro.

― Frogman Henry, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 18:49 (4 years ago) Permalink

SCANDALOUS!

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 18:49 (4 years ago) Permalink

Something Wild is the other classic example of this plot strategy.

― akm, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 19:29 (4 years ago) Permalink

If I remember correctly, the making-of documentary that comes with the DVD goes into great detail about 'Lies'. I don't think this is really that much of a scandal.

― Alex in NYC, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 20:07 (4 years ago) Permalink

God, this is such a brilliant movie. Hard to believe it was panned when it came out. I also love "The King of Comedy," another neglected Scorsese gem.

― Jazzbo, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 20:53 (4 years ago) Permalink

It was panned? I thought I remembered (at least) Siskel & Ebert liking it.

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 20:54 (4 years ago) Permalink

this and king of comedy are great, some of my favorite scorsese movies; I'd rather watch either of them than Gang of New York any day

― akm, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 21:02 (4 years ago) Permalink

I've seen specious speculation online to the effect that Joe Frank and Joseph Minion are in fact (no lie!) THE SAME PERSON!

But yeah, I'm failing to see any scandal here. The guy was caught and they reached a cash settlement. And twenty years went by. And nobody can remember some guy-they've-never-heard-of giving money to ANOTHER guy-they've-never-heard-of, and that's evidence of some kinda COVER-UP?? Jesus.

And yeah...a fine, fine movie. But so's "Vampire's Kiss". (If only they'd gotten a bigshot like Scorsese or (even) DePalma to direct.)

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 21:06 (4 years ago) Permalink

CONSPIRACY!

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 21:13 (4 years ago) Permalink

Something Wild is the other classic example of this plot strategy.

The Yuppie Nightmare was a well used theme at the time; Something Wild, Pacific Heights, Into the Night, Fatal Attraction, Desperately Seeking Susan. No doubt several others I've long since forgotten.

― Billy Dods, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 22:31 (4 years ago) Permalink

I don't think Pacific Heights has much to do with Something Wild/After Hours.

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 22:39 (4 years ago) Permalink

ALL STARRING GRIFFIN DUNNE

― akm, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 22:40 (4 years ago) Permalink

Pacific Heights was much later actually

― akm, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 22:40 (4 years ago) Permalink

I guess Bonfire of the Vanities is the mother of all stories where this is concerned

― akm, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 22:41 (4 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, was a little later (1990) than the others, that genre was pretty played out by then.

― Billy Dods, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 22:44 (4 years ago) Permalink

Good for Joe Frank he's terrific...I love that movie too, used to live down there and whenever I watch it I get misty for my lost city :(

― iago g., Wednesday, 28 May 2008 00:10 (4 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

If anyone cares.. click here!

― Alex in NYC, Saturday, 27 February 2010 01:03 (3 years ago) Permalink

always liked use of that peggy lee song in this underrated movie

― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 27 February 2010 02:09 (3 years ago) Permalink

Watched this again last night, and read Ebert's Great Movies writeup afterward. Is it just me, or does Ebert totally misread this scene?

Another device was to offhandedly suggest alarming possibilities about characters, as when Kiki describes burns, and Paul finds a graphic medical textbook about burn victims in the bedroom of Marcy (Rosanna Arquette), the girl he has gone to meet at Kiki's apartment. Are the burns accidental or deliberate? The possibility is there, because Kiki is into sadomasochism. Trying to find a shared conversational topic, Paul tells Marcy the story of the time he was a little boy in the hospital and was left for a time in the burn unit, but blindfolded and warned not to remove the blindfold. He did, and what he saw horrified him. Strange, that entering the lives of two women obsessed with burns, he would have his own burn story, but coincidence and synchronicity are the engines of the plot.

I always thought the whole reason he broke it off with Marcy (using the bad pot as an excuse) was that he thought she had major burn injuries and he was still traumatized by the childhood experience (which we never get to hear in full)- he thought she was who Kiki was referring to with the "some women I know are covered with scars" line, was increasingly freaked out by the tube of 2nd-degree burn cream, the medical textbook, Marcy's refusal to wear anything that didn't fully cover her, her shutting the door and turning off the lights, etc. We don't even know about Kiki's S&M thing until later in the movie, when Paul brings the sculpture back to her loft. In Ebert's reading, I don't see how one of the bleakest jokes in the movie even works (where Paul starts gingerly pulling the covers off of Marcy's body to look for burn wounds and becomes hysterical when he doesn't find any).

― a black white asian pine ghost who is fake (Telephone thing), Sunday, 28 February 2010 21:19 (3 years ago) Permalink

Didn't know that was Bad Brains in the club scene.

― can it compete with the wagon wheel (Eazy), Sunday, 28 February 2010 21:32 (3 years ago) Permalink

Ebert is a dirty old man. I

― Alex in NYC, Monday, 1 March 2010 00:38 (3 years ago) Permalink

Speaking of Scorsese soundtracks, even if I don't get around to seeing Shutter Island, I'm going to pick up the Robbie Robertson-curated soundtrack:

CD 1
1. Ingram Marshall - Fog Tropes
2. Krysztof Penderecki - Symphony No. 3 - IV. Passacaglia - Allegro moderato
3. John Cage - Music for Marcel Duchamp
4. Nam June Paik - Hommage a John Cage
5. György Ligeti - Lontano
6. Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel 2
7. Johnnie Ray - Cry
8. Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight
9. Giacinto Scelsi - Uaxuctum - III. (untitled)
10. Gustav Mahler - Quartet in A minor for piano and strings

CD 2
1. John Adams - Christian Zeal and Activity
2. Lou Harrison - Suite for Symphonic Strings - IX. Nocturne
3. Brian Eno - Lizard Point
4. Alfred Schnittke - Four Hymns - II. For Cello and Double Bass
5. John Cage - Root of an Unfocus
6. Ingram Marshal - Alctraz - I. Prelude: The Bay
7. Kay Starr - Wheel of Fortune
8. Lonnie Johnson - Tomorrow Night
9. Max Richter/Dinah Washington - On the Nature of Daylight/This Bitter Earth

― Hideous Lump, Monday, 1 March 2010 01:14 (3 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

love this fucking movie so much

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Friday, 18 May 2012 08:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

i know this is kind of challopsy, but sometimes i think this + king of comedy are scorsese's best films. he was really firing on all cylinders.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Friday, 18 May 2012 08:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

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