A few weeks ago Irresistible interviewed some of the team behind this sumptuous cinematic concert ahead of their debut and premiere at the Sydney Opera House. Years of work and multiple collaborations, starting with shared passions for the film, have come together and paid off, with the treat that is now In The Mood For Love In Concert.
Sydney is likely to be the first step for a performance, and a team, which is going global. Asian cities would seem obvious future ports of call, with easily imaginable audiences in Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong itself, revelling in a night out with one of the most beautiful films ever made. Plenty of worldwide cities would aready count many fans of Wong Kar Wai’s work amongst their residents, but such is the attraction to an opportunity to hear the score performed by a live orchestra, In The Mood For Love in Concert is almost certain to continue to attract new and younger theatregoers to the film wherever it plays, just as it did in Sydney.
Cocooned in the Concert Hall of Sydney Opera House, the audience was immersed in the intense relationship between Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung), as it played out on the big screen. The secrets, the longing, and the closeness of others in their Hong Kong lives were as poignant as ever, and the long wordless sequences that the film is famous for were picked up perfectly by the orchestra, who accompanied perfectly in sync, led by the superstar conductor Guy Noble.
Shigeru Umenyabashi’s Yumeji’s Theme is one of the central musical motifs of the film, and is such a wonderful piece of music, that it now seems odd to have ever watched the film without a full orchestra, even though that would have meant bringing one into our student apartments a few years back.
Nat King Cole’s voice has been separated out, and accompanied the Sydney Lyric Orchestra as they played the Latin classics that are in the film, and give it that essential 60s feeling. For a finale Bryan Ferry’s voice did the same, and the audience was treated to his version of I’m in the Mood for Love.
Of all the films that have been set to live music, this must be one of the ones that makes the most sense. The gloriousness of the outfits even seems richer when a full orchestra is doing them justice.
Once watched in this way, it may be hard to go back.
